How to Cite a Law in APA Style | Format & Examples
Published on
February 11, 2021
by
Jack Caulfield.
Revised on
June 16, 2022.
To cite federal laws (also commonly referred to as statutes or acts) in APA Style, include the name of the law, “U.S.C.” (short for United States Code), the title and section of the code where the law appears, the year, and optionally the URL.
The year included is when the law was published in the source consulted, not when it was passed, amended, or supplemented.
APA format
Name of Law, Title number U.S.C. § Section number (Year). URL
The United States Code and most other compilations of laws are divided into parts called “titles,” and within those titles, sections.
No symbol is used for the title in your reference, but the section number is preceded by the symbol §. To insert the section symbol in Word, click on “Insert,” “Symbol,” “More symbols,” “Special characters,” and then find it in the list under “section.”
When a law is spread across multiple consecutive sections, the term “et seq.” (Latin for “and following”) is added after the initial section number. It is always italicized and followed by a period.
Reference entry with “et seq.”Fess–Kenyon Act, 29 U.S.C. § 31 et seq. (1920).
Citing federal statutes with the public law number
A law may also have a public law number. This is not used in the citation, except in special cases: when the law is not (yet) included in the United States Code, or when it is spread across non-consecutive parts of the Code.
Laws not included in the Code
A law that has not been codified (published in the United States Code) should be cited using its public law number and information about wherever it was published.
The law below was published in the United States Statutes at Large, which is abbreviated to “Stat.”
APA format
Name of Law, Pub. L. No. Number, Volume number Source Page number (Year). URL
When an act is codified across different non-consecutive sections of the Code, it is also cited using the public law number and information about its location in the Statutes at Large.
The example below was codified in titles 2, 28, and 42 of the Code, so it is cited using the public law number instead.
APA format
Name of Law, Pub. L. No. Number, Volume number Source Page number (Year). URL
The AI-powered APA Citation Checker points out every error, tells you exactly what’s wrong, and explains how to fix it. Say goodbye to losing marks on your assignment!
The laws and statutes of individual states are cited in a similar format to federal laws where possible. “U.S.C.” is replaced with an abbreviation for the law code of that state, and titles and sections are presented in the same way. However, some state codes use article or chapter numbers instead of or in addition to section numbers, or do not use titles.
Make sure to adapt your reference to the standards of the state. For example, the title for a law from the Virginia Code is included with the section number, separated by a hyphen, as shown in this example.
APA format
Name of Law, Title numberSource § Section number (Year). URL
Generally, you should identify a law in an APAreference entry by its location in the United States Code (U.S.C.).
But if the law is either spread across various sections of the code or not featured in the code at all, include the public law number in addition to information on the source you accessed the law in, e.g.:
Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, Pub. L. No. 111-2, 123 Stat. 5 (2009).
No, including a URL is optional in APA Stylereference entries for legal sources (e.g. court cases, laws). It can be useful to do so to aid the reader in retrieving the source, but it’s not required, since the other information included should be enough to locate it.
Sources in this article
We strongly encourage students to use sources in their work. You can cite our article (APA Style) or take a deep dive into the articles below.
This Scribbr article
Caulfield, J.
(June 16, 2022). How to Cite a Law in APA Style | Format & Examples. Scribbr.
Retrieved October 17, 2022,
from https://www.scribbr.com/apa-examples/law/