Texas Codes

• General Information
• Current Texas Codes and Civil Statutes
• Vernon's Texas Statutes and Codes Annotated
• Historical Compilations of Texas Statutes

General Information

Most currently active Texas statutes are organized into a set of subject-oriented codes, arranged alphabetically within the set by the title of the code. Each code is divided into chapters, which are subdivided into sections.

Before someone had the bright idea of creating these individual codes, most Texas statutes were lumped together in a massive, unwieldy set call the Civil Statutes. These statutes were vaguely organized into over 130 alphabetically arranged topics, but were numbered sequentially throughout the set by article numbers. Every time the Civil Statutes were revised, they were completely renumbered in sequence without regard for the numbering in the previous edition, so that the article number for any given statute would change completely with each revision.

In 1963 the Texas Legislative Council was given the job of reorganizing this mess into the codes that we know today, a process that is still continuing. When all the codes are enacted, the statutes will be in a more logical order, the numbering system will accommodate future amendments and additions, all repealed, invalid, and duplicative provisions will be eliminated, and the language of the law will be more clear (if possible).

The statutory revision program is an ongoing process that will not end even after the last code is enacted. Some of the earliest codes enacted, such as the Education Code, have undergone further revision in recent years. In addition, each session of the legislature enacts statutes that should have been codified in a previously enacted code but were not so codified. As a result, each interim the council legal staff also prepares an update bill that modifies the already enacted codes to conform to acts of the most recent legislature, codifies laws in the appropriate topical code, conforms recently enacted codes to other statutes enacted by the same legislature, and eliminates duplicate section numbers.

So far the only codes that have not been enacted are the Criminal Procedure Code (which, curiously, is not the same as the Code of Criminal Procedure), and the Probate Code (which is not the same as the current Probate Code).

The Insurance Code has only been partially completed.

The Business Organization Code was not drafted by the Texas Legislative Council, but by a committee set up by the Business Law Section of the State Bar of Texas. It was originally going to be called the Corporations and Associations Code and includes all Texas statutes governing the formation and internal affairs of business entities, including corporations, partnerships, and limited liability companies.

In addition to the codes created out of the Revised Civil Statutes, there are many local laws that govern individual special districts. These laws are not currently published anywhere outside the session laws. Many of these local laws have been repeatedly amended over the years, making it difficult to figure out what the current law is, a task which requires comparing the law as printed in several different session law volumes. The Special District Local Laws Code project is the Texas Legislative Council’s effort to reorganize and consolidate these laws in the manner of the general laws, using the same numbering system employed in the other codes drafted by TLC attorneys.

Current Texas Codes and Civil Statutes

Texas Statutes (Texas Legislature Online)

This site contains the full text of the Texas Constitution, current codes, and current civil statutes in HTML, PDF, or Word format. Search by keyword or browse by chapter and section number.

LexisNexis Academic

Search the Texas Constitution, annotated current Texas statutes and codes, and the Texas Advance Legislative Service, which contains the full text of all laws enacted during the latest legislative session. Search by keyword in full text, citation, section, or heading. Select “Legal” from the top menu bar, then “Federal & State Codes” from the menu in the right margin. In the “Select Sources” drop-down menu, select “TX.”

Vernon's Texas Codes Annotated (V.T.C.A.)

Call Number KFT1230.5.V4 [Penal Code shelved at Documents Service Desk]

This annotated set (sometimes known as the black statutes because of the distinctive black binding) from West Publishing provides the full text of current statutes, plus historical information, references to the Texas Administrative Code, and lists of cases interpreting each statute. The bound volumes are updated by pocket parts and pamphlet supplements. A subject index is included in the last volume of each code, and there is also a subject index for the entire set, which includes a table for converting session law citations to code citations.

Statutes that have not yet been incorporated into the new codes may be found in the Vernon’s Texas Civil Statutes or Vernon’s Texas Statutes Annotated, shelved in the same area. The constantly varying and shifting titles are very confusing, and most often the whole series of annotated Texas statutes and codes are simply referred to as Vernon’s.

West’s Texas Statutes and Codes

Call Number KFT1230.5 .W4 (Available at Documents Service Desk)

This compact, soft cover version of the Texas codes includes each code in a separate volume. Each code is updated at the end of each legislative session. There are no annotations citing relevant court cases, nor is there an index for the entire set, but the codes do include historical information on the previous versions of each law. Sometimes a volume is a compilation of all relevant laws on a topic, rather than a code.

The UNT Libraries own the following volumes:

• Texas Business and Commerce Code
  
• Texas Corporation and Partnership Laws
• Texas Criminal Procedure—Code and Rules
• Texas Family Code
• Texas Penal Code
• Texas Probate Code
• Texas Property Code

Vernon's Texas Statutes and Codes Annotated

Joseph W. Vernon was a publisher of the Texas statutes in the early to mid­1900s. Vernon was born in Wisconsin in 1860 to a family of Danish descent. In 1886 he moved to Kansas City. Although not a lawyer, he was interested in law book publishing, and in 1902 he founded the Vernon Law Book Co.

The first set of annotated Texas statutes was published by John Sayles (one of the original faculty members of Baylor Law School) and his son Henry in 1888. This set was kept up to date by supplementary volumes and revisions, and by 1897 was known as Sayles’ Annotated Civil Statutes of the State of Texas.

Before the 1911 revision of the Sayles set, The Sayles’ copyright was purchased by the Vernon Law Book Company. The 1914 edition of the Texas statutes was published as Vernon’s Sayles’ Annotated Civil Statutes of the State of Texas, but the Sayles name was dropped in the 1925 edition, and the set became known as Vernon’s Annotated Revised Civil Statutes of the State of Texas.

West Publishing became a majority stockholder in Vernon in 1911, and bought Vernon in 1969. West has continued publishing the annotated Texas statutes, but has always used the Vernon name in the titles.

Historical Compilations of Texas Statutes

• Early Digests (pre-Republic to 1879)
• Old Codes (1856 to 1879)
• Revised Civil Statutes (1879 to 1925)

Early Digests (pre-Republic to 1879)

The Texas Constitution of 1836 provided for the Texas laws to be codified (General Provisions, Section 7):

SEC. 7. So soon as convenience will permit, there shall be a penal code formed on principles of reformation, and not of vindictive justice; and the civil and criminal laws shall be revised, digested, and arranged under different heads; and all laws relating to land titles shall be translated, revised, and promulgated.

By the time of the Constitution of 1845 there was still no official Texas code, so the new constitution put a deadline on the project (Article VII, Section 16):

SEC. 16. Within five years after the adoption of this constitution, the laws, civil and criminal, shall be revised, digested, arranged, and published in such manner as the legislature shall direct; and a like revision, digest, and publication shall be made every ten years thereafter.

Alas, this deadline too would pass and there would still be no official code. Perhaps the passive construction is to blame for the lack of initiative taken here, for the authors of the constitution neglected to assign  responsibility for creating the code to any specific person or agency. In the meantime, several private citizens took it upon themselves to create unofficial compilations of the laws.

These early Texas digests included the full text or brief summaries of the statutes arranged alphabetically by subject, and included notes on relevant decisions of the Texas Supreme Court.

Dallam’s Digest [Call Number KFT1238 .D34 1845]: Dallam, James Wilmer. A Digest of the Laws of Texas. Baltimore: John D. Toy, 1845.

This was the first attempt at an annotated compilation of current statutes. It consisted of brief paraphrases of the laws (not the full text) and notes on selected decisions of the Supreme Court of the Republic. Some of the laws were cited, but not summarized. Dallam’s work is useful today not for its digest of laws, but for its publication of the Opinions of the Supreme Court of Texas during the period of the Republic of Texas. These were published as a separate book in 1883.

Hartley’s Digest: Hartley, Oliver Cromwell. A Digest of the Laws of Texas. Philadelphia: Thomas, Cowperthwait, 1850.

This was longer than Dallam’s Digest, but not much more helpful. In 1854 Oliver Cromwell Hartley was appointed to a 3-person commission to codify the laws of the state.

Oldham and White’s Digest: Oldham, Williamson Simpson, and George W. White. A Digest of the General Statute Laws of the State of Texas. Austin, Tex.: Printed by J. Marshall and Co., 1859.

This was an official compilation commissioned by the Texas Legislature, but was still incomplete and confusing. This was the last digest compiled before the Civil War. Oldham was a secessionist who represented Texas in the Confederate Congress.

Paschal’s Digest/P.D.: Paschal, George W. A Digest of the Laws of Texas. Galveston, Tex.: S. S. Nichols, 1866.

George Paschal opposed secession as vehemently as Oldham had endorsed it. He sat out the Civil War years working on his own digest, which printed the full text of the current law, the text of the repealed law (or a note of what was changed), and the judicial interpretation of both. This was the most popular and the first truly successful of the early digests, going through five editions from 1866 to 1875. It was superseded by the official Revised Statutes of 1879, but remains useful to this day for tracing the history of some Texas law.

Old Codes (1856 to 1879)

In 1854 the Legislature authorized the Governor to appoint a commission to codify the Texas civil and criminal laws. This commission included John W. Harris, Oliver Cromwell Hartley, and James Willie. (Hartley had authored one of the early unofficial compilations.) The commission came up with four codes: a civil code (by Harris), a code of civil procedure (by Hartley), a penal code (by Willie), and a code of criminal procedure (also by Willie).

Only the penal code and code of criminal procedure were adopted:

1856 Penal Code

Harris, John Woods, Oliver Cromwell Hartley and James Willie. The Penal Code of the State of Texas, Adopted by the Sixth Legislature. Galveston, Tex.: Printed at the News Office, 1857.

Available at UNT Libraries under Call Number KFT1761.A2 T43 1857

 1856 Code of Criminal Procedure

Harris, John Woods, Oliver Cromwell Hartley and James Willie. The Code of Criminal Procedure of the State of Texas. Galveston, Tex.: Printed at the News Office, 1857.

Available at UNT Libraries under Call Number KFT1775.A19 1857

Commonly known as the “Codes of 1856,” the “Old Codes,” or just “O.C.,” these were the only official codified laws of the state until 1879. They were apparently modeled after the codes of criminal law and procedure devised by Edward Livingston for the state of Louisiana. The so-called Livingston Code, which was in turn based on the ideas of Jeremy Bentham, was considered progressive for its remedial rather than vindictive approach to criminal justice. The Texas codes did not adopt the most radical features of the Livingston Code, such as the abolition of capital punishment, but they were very progressive for their time. The 1856 Penal Code was also the first to make an explicit list of all the specific acts that were against the law, largely eliminating the common law approach to defining crimes and greatly clarifying the law for laymen.

Revised Civil Statutes (1879 to 1925)

Eventually, someone figured out how to codify the civil statutes.

The 1876 Texas Constitution contains the following provision (Article III, Section 43):

SEC. 43. The first session of the Legislature under this Constitution shall provide for revising, digesting and publishing the laws, civil and criminal; and a like revision, digest and publication may be made every ten years thereafter; provided, that in the adoption of and giving effect to any such digest or revision, the Legislature shall not be limited by sections 35 and 36 of this Article.

Since the adoption of the 1876 Constitution, Texas has had four bulk revisions of its statutes (in 1879, 1895, 1911 and 1925). A bulk revision involves making major changes in the substance of the law by re­enacting all of the statutes (in contrast to those statutes on a particular subject), eliminating repealed, invalid, duplicative and other ineffective provisions.

1879 Revised Statutes: Ferris, J. W., and John N. Lyle. The Revised Statutes of Texas: Adopted by the Regular Session of the Sixteen Legislature, A.D. 1879. Galveston, Tex.: A. H. Belo & Co., 1879.

This was the first complete, official, codified revision of all Texas law. 

1895 Revised Statutes: Revised Civil Statutes of the State of Texas. Adopted at the regular session of the Twenty-fourth Legislature, 1895. Published by authority of the state...pursuant to chapter 82, Acts 1895.

1911 Revised Statutes: Revised Civil Statutes of the State of Texas. Adopted at the regular session of the Thirty-second Legislature, 1911. Published by authority of the State of Texas.

1925 Revised Statutes: Revised Civil Statutes of the State of Texas. Adopted at the regular session of the Thirty-ninth Legislature, 1925, Including Constitution of the United States and Constitution of the State of Texas. Published by authority of the state of Texas.

This was the last bulk revision of the civil statutes before they were separated into subject-oriented codes.

The Red Statutes: Vernon’ Texas Statutes.

After the 1925 revision, updated, unofficial compilations of the Civil Statutes, Penal Code, and Code of Civil Procedure were published periodically by Vernon’s (and later West) in Vernon’s Texas Statutes. They were known as the “Red Statutes” because of their distinctive red binding. There was a 1936 Centennial edition containing the 1925 statutes plus all session laws issued up to 1936; a 1938 cumulative supplement; and a 1948 compilation. After 1948 annual supplements updated the 1948 compilation, providing little more information than the session laws.

The Revised Statutes were published as one enormous sequence of numbered Articles. This numbering scheme had several problems:

• The laws on a single broad topic (such as education or family law) were not grouped together, but were scattered throughout the set. The statutes were arranged alphabetically by rather specific subject headings (beginning with accountants and ending with wrecks), but laws related to a broad topic area such as family or property are distributed among various far-flung Articles.
• Every time the statutes were revised, the articles were renumbered in sequence, without regard for the number any statute might have had in the previous revision. Commercial compilations published after the 1925 revision dealt with this issue by displaying in brackets all the earlier Article numbers assigned to a law, from the latest to the earliest:
  
  

  art. 3456. [3383] [2016] [1963] Inventories to be returned.

  This means that Article 3456 in the latest (1925) bulk revision—the Texas statutory law on “Inventories to be Returned”— corresponds to Article 3383 in the previous revision (1911), Article 2016 in the revision before that (1895), and Article 1963 in the earliest (1879) revision.

• The numbering scheme did not leave room for new laws to be inserted between the old. Laws enacted after 1925 that did not amend the Revised Statutes have been arranged unofficially and arbitrarily assigned an article number by a private publisher (currently West Group). In assigning article numbers, West editors have resorted to adding a letter or number suffix to a whole number to accommodate new laws (e.g., between Articles 5159 and 5160, West editors added Articles 5159a, 5159b, 5159c, and 5159d, none of which necessarily have anything to do with Article 5159 or with each other.).

After the last (1925) bulk revision, the Texas Legislature enacted several topical revisions:

• Liquor Control Act
  
• Banking Code
• Insurance Code
• Election Code
• Probate Code
• Business Corporation Act
• 1925 Revised Statutes Title 122A (Taxation­General)
• Non­Profit Uniform Commercial Code
• 1965 Code of Criminal Procedure

Two features of these topical revisions can result in considerable confusion for the researcher:

• Even though some of these revisions are referred to as codes, they are not the same as the codes that were created as part of the comprehensive reorganization into codes that was started by the Texas Legislative Council in 1963.
• These topical revisions have sequentially numbered Articles just like the other civil statutes, but their Articles are numbered completely independently of the other civil statutes, even though the topical revisions are interfiled alphabetically with the other civil statutes. An Article in the civil statutes, therefore, might have the same number as an Article in one of these other volumes even though they are completely unrelated.