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BACKGROUND AND DEFINITIONS FOR OHIO LEGISLATION
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Prepared by Karen Kimber, Social Sciences and Humanities Team Leader
Paul Laurence Dunbar University, Wright State University

See also related guides:

Notes on Bills and Resolutions

Bills are numbered consecutively throughout a General Assembly. A bill is referred to by the chamber where it originated: Senate Bill (abbreviated S.B.) or House Bill (abbreviated H.B.). A bill or resolution is cited using the abbreviation above, followed by a number. For example, H.B. 17 refers to the 17th bill introduced in the House in a particular General Assembly. The reference does not automatically include the number of the General Assembly or its date, so you will need to find that information elsewhere. (For the numbers of General Assemblies and the dates they cover, see numbering of General Assemblies.)

Notes on Individual Laws as Enacted

Unlike federal statutes, an individual Ohio statute is not given a new number when it has been enacted, but retains its original bill number. (See Notes on Bills and Resolutions.)

Individual laws are first produced in print format as individual sheets or pamphlets, one per law. In this format, they are known as slip laws. The laws are later bound into volumes in numerical order. Sources for finding these individual have varying titles.

The Ohio Revised Code and its various versions

Individual laws are codified, that is, incorporated into a subject arrangement of laws currently in effect.

Anderson Publishing provides an unannotated version, that is, a version which gives the Ohio Revised Code without supplementary information Two commercial publishers produce versions in which they add annotations to each section. These annotations usually include citations to related regulations and court cases. One annotated version is Page's Ohio Revised Code Annotated, which is available online from LexisNexis Academic Universe. Another is Baldwin's Ohio Revised Code Annotated, which is available in Dunbar Library only in print format.

In the annotated versions, the text of the code itself is the same as the official version; only the annotations will be different. The annotations in the two versions will not be the same, since they are written by staff of two different publishers.

Numbering of General Assemblies

A General Assembly lasts for two years.

1983-84 115th General Assembly 1993-94 120th General Assembly 2003-04 125th General Assembly
1985-86 116th General Assembly 1995-96 121st General Assembly 2005-06 126th General Assembly
1987-88 117th General Assembly 1997-98 122nd General Assembly 2007-08 127th General Assembly
1989-90 118th General Assembly 1999-2000 123rd General Assembly
1991-92 119th General Assembly 2001-02 124th General Assembly

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Revised 23 January 2007
http://www.wright.edu/~karen.kimber/legiso3.html 		Karen Kimber (karen.kimber@wright.edu)
Paul Laurence Dunbar Library - (937) 775-3034
Wright State University Libraries