Burns Law Library Q&A

Federal securities regulations are first published in the Federal Register (F.R.) as final rules and are later codified as regulations in the Code of Federal Regulations (C.F.R.).  The C.F.R. refers to each rule by a numbering system that mirrors the numbers the rules were assigned when the SEC originally promulgated them (e.g., Rule 144 of the Securities Act is 17 C.F.R. 230.144). The official rules covering the 1933 and 1934 acts begin at 17 C.F.R. Part 230. (Attorneys and the courts generally refer to the commonly used Rule numbers rather than the official C.F.R. citations.)

Securities regulations are also available in the following specialized sources for securities research.  These sources include indexing by topic, finding aids and cross references, and annotations:

• VitalLaw  - Securities (Federal)
• Bloomberg Law - Securities Practice Center
• Lexis - Securities Law
• Westlaw - Securities Enforcement & Litigation

For information on researching securities laws, please see the Law Library’s guide, Securities Law.