common-law
Meaning of &quot;Stat.&quot; in legal citation
<p>What exactly does "Stat." mean in law citations?</p>

<p>I am a student studying history who came across the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887. I noticed that the original law is referred to as follows:</p>

<p>Feb. 8, 1887, ch. 119, 24 Stat. 388</p>

<p>However, there is one things which I do not understand in this citation. What exactly does "<strong>24 Stat.</strong>" mean? I looked up a record of this law online (<a href="http://uscode.house.gov/statviewer.htm?volume=24&amp;page=388" rel="nofollow">http://uscode.house.gov/statviewer.htm?volume=24&amp;page=388</a>), and nowhere could I find "<strong>24 Stat.</strong>".</p>

<p>At least for US federal law, Stat. is an abbreviation for the United States Statutes at Large. The Statutes at Large are the official record of all public and private laws passed by Congress, exactly as passed, organized chronologically. It's not terribly common to use it when citing <em>current</em> law; the organized-by-topic US Code is much more common to cite for that. But if you want a record of every act passed by the US Congress, the Statutes at Large is what you want.</p>
