What is legislative history?
According to the State Law Library of Montana the term "legislative history" can mean two different things. First, "legislative history" refers to the chronological progress of a bill through the legislative process from its introduction to its enactment into law. In the legal field, however, "legislative history," also often refers to the collection of documents that are created during that process. Judges and attorneys often turn to these documents to try to determine why the legislature enacted a particular law or to aid in the interpretation of a portion of the law. This process of using legislative history to interpret a law is often referred to as finding the "legislative intent" behind the law. See the State Law Library of Montana's "Montana Legislative History Research Guide" for more info.
What resources are available at the Montana Historical Society Research Center?
Montana Historical Society holds Montana Territorial Legislative records from 1864 to 1889 and Montana State Legislative records from 1890 to current. The researcher must note that many of the territorial and early state records do not include House and Senate committee minutes. Legislative records are all assigned an "LR-Terr" or "LR" number based upon the legislative assembly. For example the 1999 session was the 56th Legislative Assembly, so its number is LR 56. All special sessions for a legislative assembly are included in the initial number. For example, the second special session that was held in May of 2000 is still part of the LR 56 records.
Listed below are the legislative records collections with links to the online finding aids on the Northwest Digital Archives. Click on the links below to find details about the minutes and other records available from each session.
Montana Territorial Legislative Assembly records, 1864-1889
FINDING AIDS ONLINE (click a link below)
Montana Legislative Assembly records, 1889-2011
FINDING AIDS ONLINE (click a link below)
Governors' Records
Legislative Committee Audio & Video Recordings
The Montana Historical Society also holds audio and video recordings for the legislative assembly from 1997-2007. To see a list of the audio and video recordings available at MHS click here.
Click the above heading to find lists of territorial and state legislators begining with 1864 and coming up to the present.
Online Resources
- The State Law Library of Montana's "Montana Legislative History Research Guide" provides step-by-step instructions to complete a legislative history.
- The Montana State Legislature Website contains comprehensive information on all bills introduced by members of the state legislature from 1997-present, including the text of various versions of bills, information on upcoming hearings on bills, minutes of legislative committee hearings on bills, and audio files of selected hearings for the 2005 session and all committee hearings from 2007 sessions to the present.
- The Montana Code Annotated is a collection of laws or statutes passed by the state legislature, arranged by topic. Montana Code Annotated is reprinted every 2 years (on odd years) after the legislature meets to incorporate changes to the laws made during the session.
- The State Law Library of Montana gathered many links to on-line sources related to Montana laws, including a section on "Constitutional and Statehood Resources" which includes links to original texts of the state's constitutions, both historical and current, and the proceedings of the 1971-1972 Constitutional Convention.
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