Code of Virginia

The Code of Virginia is the statutory law of the U.S. state of Virginia, and consists of the codified legislation of the Virginia General Assembly. The 1950 Code of Virginia is the revision currently in force. The previous official versions were the Codes of 1819, 1849, 1887, and 1919, though other compilations had been printed privately as early as 1733, and other editions have been issued that were not designated full revisions of the code.

The official version of the Code of Virginia is published by the Michie Company under contract with the Virginia Code Commission, the governmental body responsible for printing and maintaining the code. West's Annotated Code of Virginia is an unofficial, competing version issued by West Publishing, which includes more cross-references and West keynumbers. The Virginia government also makes the code available without annotations for free on the internet.

As of 2008^[update], the printed Code of Virginia consists of twenty-nine hardcover volumes, with a two-volume subject matter index that is replaced annually. The statutes are fully annotated by Virginia attorneys, and include cites to and summaries of Virginia state and federal court decisions as well as law reviews. The first volume of the Code of Virginia also prints the Virginia Constitution and the Constitution of the United States.

The government of Virginia claims copyright over the Code, including the text of statutes. Individual preparers, however, may obtain rights over case annotations, indices, and various notes concerning sections and reference tables they have written.

Originally created in 1946 as the Commission on Code Recodification to prepare what became the Code of 1950, the Virginia Code Commission was made a permanent part of the state's legislative branch and given the responsibility for publishing and maintaining the code. It also has responsibility for publishing the Virginia Administrative Code and Rules of Evidence, as well as Virginia State Bar advisory opinions and Virginia compacts, which it may incorporate into the code. Though the Commission may arrange for the code to be published directly by and at the expense of the Commonwealth of Virginia, since 1950 it has contracted the task of printing the code out to the Michie Company.

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