Congress has passed a bill creating a new Title 51 of the United States Code. Currently there are only 50 titles that collect most federal laws currently in effect. The new Title 51 relates to national and commercial space exploration. But don’t we have those laws elsewhere in the U.S. Code already? Exactly.
The government office responsible for adding federal statutes to their proper place in the U.S. Code, the Office of Law Revision Counsel in the U.S. House of Representatives, explains what’s going on:
Over the past five decades, a substantial amount of legislation has been enacted relating to national and commercial space programs. In the United States Code, some of these provisions appear in title 15 (Commerce and Trade), some in title 42 (The Public Health and Welfare), and some in title 49 (Transportation). No distinct title for national and commercial space programs exists in the United States Code because the organizational scheme for the Code was originally established in 1926, before such programs were contemplated.
The bill gathers provisions relating to national and commercial space programs, and restates the provisions as title 51, United States Code, “National and Commercial Space Programs”. The bill does not provide for any new programs. Nor does it modify or repeal any existing programs. Rather, the bill restates existing law in a manner that adheres to the policy, intent, and purpose of the original enactments, while improving the organizational structure of the law and removing ambiguities, contradictions, and other imperfections.
The bill was prepared by the Office of the Law Revision Counsel of the House of Representatives, as part of its responsibility under 2 U.S.C. 285b to submit to the Committee on the Judiciary proposed bills to enact titles of the United States Code into positive law. For more information about the process of positive law codification generally, see the brochure Positive Law Codification in the United States Code.
So… what is positive law codification? Tell us, Office of the Law Revision Counsel [PDF]:
The United States Code is divided into subject matter titles. Some are “positive law” titles and some are “non-positive law” titles. The difference is this:
A positive law title of the United States Code is – itself – a Federal statute.
A non-positive law title of the United States Code is an editorial compilation of Federal statutes.
For example, title 10, United States Code, “Armed Forces”, is a positive law title because the title, per se, has been explicitly enacted.
Alternatively, title 42, United States Code, “The Public Health and Welfare”, is a non-positive law title. The Federal statutes set out editorially in title 42 have been explicitly enacted, but title 42, per se, has not.
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Ultimately, all titles of the United States Code will be positive law titles. At present, about half are positive law titles.
Got that? The publication quoted above goes into the benefits of positive law codification if you want to read more. As President Obama signed the bill into law on Dec. 18, get used to typing 51 U.S.C. …
