Law of Maryland

The Annotated Code of Maryland, published by The Michie Company, is the official codification of the statutory laws of Maryland. It is organized, by subject matter, in two sets of volumes. The black volumes contain the articles that are cited by number, and the red volumes contain the articles that are cited by name.

The Annotated Code of Maryland is amended through the legislative process involving both bodies of the Maryland General Assembly, the House of Delegates and the Senate. A bill is a proposal to change, repeal, or add to existing state law. A House Bill (HB) is one introduced in the House of Delegates (for example: HB 6); a Senate Bill (SB), in the Senate.

Bills are designated by number, in the order of introduction in each house. For example, HB 16 refers to the sixteenth bill introduced in the House of Delegates. The numbering starts afresh each legislative session. The names of the legislator who introduced the bill and of any sponsors becomes part of the bill title. Bills listed as "The Speaker (By Request of Administration)", "The President (By Request of Administration)", "Minority Leader (By Request of Administration)", or "Committee Chair (By Request of Department)" are bills proposed by the Governor and state agencies and are not proposals of the Speaker of the House, the President of the Senate, the Minority Leader, or the respective Committee Chair. They are listed with the official title of a legislator rather than the Governor due to requirements in the Maryland Constitution.

The legislative procedure, is divided into distinct stages:

The Maryland General Assembly is in the process of gradually recodifying the state laws by repealing the versions in the black volumes and re-enacting new versions which are then published in the red volumes. For example, Chapter 26 of the 2002 Laws of Maryland recodified most of Article 27 into the Criminal Law Article. According to the Maryland State Department of Legislative Services, the state legislature committed to the recodification process in 1970, but it is not scheduled to be completed until 2016. The purpose of this process is to reorganize the laws, rather than to change their content or meaning. Until the process is completed, it is important to realize that the laws of the state of Maryland comprise both sets of volumes.

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