A&M University School of Texas A&M Law Scholarship

Faculty Scholarship

1-1986

Constitutionalizing the Codes

James Hambleton

Jim Paulsen

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Recommended Citation James Hambleton & Jim Paulsen, Constitutionalizing the Codes, 49 Tex. B.J. 410 (1986). Available at: https://scholarship.law.tamu.edu/facscholar/12

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Texas A&M Law Scholarship. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Scholarship by an authorized administrator of Texas A&M Law Scholarship. For more information, please contact [email protected]. S-Legal Research Constitutionalizing the Codes

This was certainly no easy task. The last revisors, in a report By James Hambleton and Jim Paulsen to the Legislature, explained: "Since the adoption of the Revised Civil Code of 1911, 25 sessions of the have created new and acted upon existing statutes by amending A re more than half of all this state's laws really uncon- and repealing many of them... In many instances, articles stitutional? The answer, at least until Texas voters have overlap and contradict each other and in many cases, statutes a chance to vote on (and, it is to be hoped, pass) a constitutional have been repealed by implication and not directly." amendment this November, is a firm "maybe." Nonetheless, the 1925 report ended on an optimistic note. The Texas Legislative Council has been proposing, and the The revisors pointed out the fact that "[s]hort and snappy Texas Legislature has been routinely approving, codes since subjects have been adopted for the articles. This plan is of great 1967. Just last year, in fact, this program to codify all the assistance in finding what one is looking for." The general statutory law of Texas passed the halfway mark, with adoption scheme of the revisors can still be seen by looking at Vernon's of the Election Code, the Government Code, and the Civil "Black Statutes." Statutes were (and where not codified, still Practice and Remedies Code. are) organized alphabetically, beginning with "Accountants" The legislation implementing each of these codes contains an and ending with "Wrecks," with topical entries like "Bees" and identical proclamation: "This Act is enacted pursuant to Article "Fences" sandwiched in between. III, Section 43, of the Texas Constitution." Oddly enough, Why were there no comprehensive revisions after 19257 A though, the 69th Legislature not only passed these codes; it good guess is that the demise of legislative revision was due to passed a joint resolution calling for a change in the very same the introduction of the "pocket part" for statutes in 1926. After Article III, Section 43. The purpose of this change is to specifi- all, since a major purpose of legislative revision had been to cally permit the Legislature to pass codes. But wait a minute. Is gather together and reconcile changes made since the last major it really necessary to pass a constitutional amendment to revision, much of this task could be accomplished by pocket authorize the Texas Legislature to do what it claims already to parts produced after each session. Moreover, the fact that have done three times in the past session alone? statutes and amendments could now be found with relative ease To find the answer to this burning legal research question, it doubtless took some attorney-generated pressure for revision is best to begin at the beginning. And, as is only appropriate in off the Legislature. this year of the Texas sesquicentennial, the beginning begins in 1836. After all, it was in 1836 that the framers of the Constitu- tion of the Republic included a provision requiring periodic Is it really necessary to pass a constitutional revision of the civil and crimi