New Jersey Legal Resources

The government of the State of New Jersey, like that of the United States, is divided into three coequal branches: the legislative, the executive, and the judicial.

• The principal function of the New Jersey Legislature is to enact laws.
• The Legislature consists of two Houses: a 40-member Senate and an 80-member General Assembly.
• Legislators are elected from 40 legislative districts of substantially equal population. The voters in each district elect one Senator and two members of the General Assembly.
• The Legislature can also propose amendments to the New Jersey Constitution.

An alphabetical by last name directory of Legislators is available, as is a district map, and a district list by number.  

The New Jersey State Constitution is the primary governing document of the State of New Jersey.

• On 2 July 1776, New Jersey became the fourth American colony to adopt a constitution declaring independence from Great Britain. It was composed in five days and although the delegates considered it a temporary charter, it remained New Jersey's state constitution for sixty-eight years.
• New Jersey's second constitution shifted governmental power, which had been vested disproportionately in the legislature under the state's first charter, to the executive branch. In addition to direct election of the governor by the voters, the 1844 State Constitution also provided for gubernatorial veto power and the appointment of most high-level officials by the governor.
• New Jersey's current state constitution was drafted by a convention of delegates from each county, convened from 12 June to 10 September 1947. The new charter further strengthened the Office of the Governor and reorganized and unified the judicial system under the Supreme Court.

The New Jersey State Library houses a number of important documents related to the New Jersey Constitutions.

What is a Session Law?

Session Laws, also known as Chapter Laws, are all of the laws passed in a particular legislative session.  These are generally found in bound volumes, published by the legislature.  The New Jersey State Library  has the bound volumes of New Jersey Session Laws going back to 1808. The New Jersey State Publications Digital Library has digitized most of the New Jersey Session Laws back to 1810.  We continue digitizing New Jersey State Publications, so be sure to check out the entire digital collection of New Jersey State Publications.

In addition, you can access the New Jersey Session Laws using the following digital resources:

• HeinOnline, a database available on-site at the library, or remotely for New Jersey State Employees with a valid New Jersey State Library library card offers access to the New Jersey Session Laws back to 1787, and access to Colonial Laws back to 1703. HeinOnline provides access to the session laws of the United States and all 50 states as well as some foreign governments.  
• The New Jersey Legislature website has Session Laws back to the 2000 legislative session.
• Rutgers University keeps a collection of New Jersey Session Laws, some of which have been digitized.
• Hathi Trust has many years of the New Jersey Session Laws digitized.

Have you ever wondered if there is a specific law? 

When visiting the library, we offer you a variety of choices to research the New Jersey Statutes.  Databases such as Lexis and Westlaw allow you to search for laws using citations or keywords.  Once found, you can easily email the information to yourself. In addition, we have the WestLaw New Jersey Statutes Annotated book in print, which provide the full-text of the statutes, as well as editorial materials which provide history and context information, along with case law information.

If you are not at the Law Library, you can easily search the complete New Jersey Statutes from the New Jersey Legislature's website using keywords.  This database contains the full-text of all the New Jersey Statutes.  If you find a law you are interested in, but would like additional information, send us an email with the citation, and we will send you the information and annotations from Lexis or Westlaw.  

To Search the Public Database of New Jersey Statutes:

1. Go to the New Jersey Legislature Webpage:  https://www.njleg.state.nj.us/
2. Using the navigation tools in the gold band at the top of the page, find the Bill tab, click on it to see the pull down menu.  Select the Statutes link from the pull down menu.
3. This takes you into a searchable database of the current New Jersey Statutes.  Find the search box located in the black band at the top of the page.
4. Within the search box place you keyword, phrase, or citation and hit enter.  When searching for phrases or citations, be sure to enclose your search items in quotes.  For example, if you want to search for real estate, you should enter “real estate”.  To look for a law that you have a citation for, for example, if NJSA 4:22-26 is your citation, enter “4:22-26” and hit enter.
5. This will return a list of statutes that contain your keyword, phrase, or statute number.  To see the full-text of any result, click on the large blue link at the beginning of the entry. 
6. Once in the full-text of any law, you can easily move through the statutes by using the Next Doc/Prev Doc buttons located directly above the text.  To return to your result list, click on the Results button located on the left side of the large blue band at the top of the page.

New Jersey Bills, Laws, & Statutes:  What's the Difference?

The New Jersey Legislature’s primary function is to pass laws.  This process begins with an idea and the introduction of a bill.   

What is a bill?

• A bill is a proposal to establish a new law, or the change or repeal an existing law.  If the bill passes through both the Senate and Assembly, and is then signed by the Governor, it becomes a law.

What is a Law?  

• All the official rules and codes that govern citizens’ actions, including the Constitution, statutory laws enacted by the Legislature, case laws established by court decisions, and administrative law as set forth by executive branch agencies.  Sometimes, Laws are referred to as Statutes.

What’s a Statute? 

• The laws created by acts of the Legislature. (see Law)

For additional definitions, check out the complete Glossary of Terms of the New Jersey Legislature.  For more information on bills and statutes, including where to find them and other types of New Jersey Laws, see our complete research guide.

What is a Legislative History?

A legislative history is a compilation of the documents which express the purpose or intent behind the passage of a particular law.

The State Library compiles histories on all New Jersey laws which are general and permanent. Appropriations, temporary and executed, and repealer acts have historically been excluded.  

Any given citation can have a number of pieces of legislation impact them.  Therefore, our legislative history database is indexed by year and chapter number.  To find the year(s) and chapter number(s) associated with a specific citation,

• access the full-text of the law using the New Jersey Legislature database of the New Jersey Statutes (unannotated).  
• In the search box, place your citation in quotes and hit enter (for example, "39:3-76.5")
• at the bottom of the full-text, you will see a list of all the legislation that has impacted this citation.