News Release
For Immediate Release
May 6, 2009
Contact:
Aaron Zappia
(215) 657-7700
Greenleaf Continues Push for Codification of Pennsylvania’s
Laws
The Senator is leading efforts to consolidate
Pennsylvania’s myriad statutes into a single cohesive text available to the
public
Pennsylvania remains the only state in the country without an
official compilation of consolidated statutes organized by subject matter.
Though this dubious distinction is largely ignored by state lawmakers and little
known to the public, the state’s legal community and good government advocates
have been asking lawmakers to complete a codification process that was mandated
by the General Assembly in 1970.
Codification is the process of revising the general and
permanent public statutes into a concise code of laws that is clear, consistent
and organized. The law on related subjects is placed together and the language
is simplified and put into a more understandable format.
Though the laws are unofficially compiled in Purdon’s
Pennsylvania Statutes, published annually by private publisher, Thomson / West,
they lack a common editorial structure, making them difficult to amend and hard
for the layperson to research or understand.
Purdon’s is available to the public through the General
Assembly’s website,
www.legis.state.pa.us/. The state annually publishes the Laws of
Pennsylvania, referred to as the "Pamphlet Laws" which are organized
chronologically. Purdon’s then organizes the laws into titles according to
subject matter. However, without official action, the laws may only be arranged
and annotated, but not brought into a modern format. Purdon’s is not the
official law of Pennsylvania.
"Purdon’s has arranged the statutes by subject, but the language
and format varies dramatically," said Greenleaf. "For example, we still have
school code laws from the 1940s that refer to the Secretary of Education as
Secretary of Public Instruction. Furthermore, acts are divided differently into
sections, chapters, subchapters, etc. These seemingly minor details add up to
confusing, unrelated, and vague texts that are the bane of the state’s legal
community and of little use to the public. Our statutes are in need of an
update, not in terms of substance, but in their format and organization."
Senator Greenleaf has long advocated for codification, having
recently received the William E. Zeiter Award from the Pennsylvania Bar
Association’s Statutory Law Committee for his efforts. Through legislation and
as the chairman of various state task forces and commissions, Greenleaf is
currently working to codify several areas of law.
Aside from being generally confusing, the unconsolidated
statutes further mire the legislative process. Because Purdon’s titles are not
the official law of Pennsylvania, legislation must be drafted to amend the
original acts which in many cases were passed decades ago in different styles
and formats. For example, the recently approved prison reform legislation of
2008 required four House bills amending individual acts even though they all
related to the same subject. If there had been a single title codifying prisons
and parole, only one bill might have been necessary.
"This certainly does not help our constituents follow the
actions of the legislature," said Greenleaf. "We can cut down the number of
bills floating around the General Assembly. Things would be simplified."
As the legislature continues to amend sometimes century-old
laws, the amending legislation must match the archaic language and format.
"As the law continues to evolve, we are forced to preserve a
style that is terribly outdated," said Greenleaf.
Codification is no easy task. Care must be taken not to
substantively change the laws as they are reorganized and brought into current
form. As well, with so many laws on every subject imaginable, it’s difficult to
know where to begin.
But perhaps the biggest obstacle is the legislators themselves.
Because the codification of individual acts must be approved by the House and
Senate, lawmakers will use the opportunity to offer significant amendments to
the acts to serve their own legislative agendas. Regardless of the merits of
any changes to the laws, it would further slow the process.
Greenleaf hopes that in the near future, the legislature, or at
least Senate colleagues, will recognize the need for completing a task that has
been underway for 38 years. The first step is to educate fellow lawmakers as well
as the public about the substandard condition of Pennsylvania’s code of laws.
For Greenleaf, codification is not merely to satisfy a
compulsion to organize, but is at the crux of responsible governance and
democracy itself.
"The law is not reserved for scholars and members of the bar,"
said Greenleaf. "It is free and open to all who must live under its rule. It
is among our chief duties as lawmakers to provide citizens with accessible and
understandable consolidated statutes that are properly drafted in a uniform
structure."
The Senator is currently involved in the following codification
efforts:
-
Chairman of the Joint State Government Commission Task
Force and Advisory Committee on Real Property Law to codify Title 68.
-
Senator Greenleaf’s resolution created the Joint State
Government Commission Task Force and Advisory Committee on Public Health Law to
codify Title 35.
-
Greenleaf’s Senate Bill 112 codifies Title 61, the
Prisons and Parole Code. Senate Bill 112 is before the Senate Appropriations
Committee.
-
Greenleaf’s Senate Bill 351 amends the Associations
Code, Title 15 of the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes, to complete the
codification of the Nonprofit Corporation Law (Title 15, Part II, Subpart C).
Senate Bill 351 is before the Senate Appropriations Committee.
-
Greenleaf’s resolution created the Joint State
Government Commission Task Force and Advisory Committee on Domestic Relations
Law.
-
Chairman of The Joint State Government Commission Task
Force and Advisory Committee on Decedents’ Estates Laws.
