Applying universal citation to state statutes can provide the same benefits as to caselaw, making statutes easier to find and cite, and improving access.
Lincoln explained it as well as anyone: "He who molds public sentiment is greater than he who makes statutes".
Frictions make statutes and regulations difficult to change, even when market changes have already altered the substantive effects of the current regime.
The LII-hosted conference focused on the technical nuts and bolts of how the government might make statutes, regulations, and case law electronically available in an inexpensive, standardized format that any organization can use.
As a woman, Stowe had no hope of making a statute.
" 'Vested' would have created a constitutionally protected property right, making a statute of common law," said Gregory M. Ellis, the former head of the Edwards Aquifer Authority and now a lawyer who represents several groundwater districts.
Furthermore, the little case law on point is mixed, potentially making the statute even less protective.
"Most states don't play this game," Malamud says, but about a half a dozen still hold back from making their statutes books fully available, including Mississippi and Idaho.
In other words, they are the tribunals to declare the meaning of the statutes, and if in declaring it they make the statutes discriminatory, then may the statutes become unconstitutional.
But that did not make the statute unconstitutional, he said.
