Session laws for Maine are published as the Laws of Maine with the volumes bearing the year of the beginning of the first regular session. Each year of session laws includes a subject index for that year and numerous tables, including a table of laws amended or repealed. Codes A code is a subject arrangement of laws. Codes usually include only laws of a public, permanent nature that are currently in force. Some states produce an official code published by the state.
Some states rely on unofficially published annotated codes.
The Maine code is the M.R.S.A. Annotated Codes Annotated codes contain notes referring the reader to cases interpreting the statutes. Many annotated codes also include references to law review articles and other legal materials, including notes on the effect of amendments. The Garbrecht Law Library subscribes to annotated codes for all fifty states and the District of Columbia. Keeping Up to Date Codes are kept up to date with pocket parts, supplementary pamphlets, replacement volumes, advance legislative services, and, ultimately, recodification of the entire set. A researcher may find it necessary to reconstruct the state of the law at a specific time in the past.