Maryland Legislative History Resources: History of the Code

The Code of Maryland is an evolving beast. The alphabetical topic organization we know today is a relatively recent phenomenon.  Before 1973, the Code was organized in a series of numbered articles, corresponding to 100+ topics ordered alphabetically. As new topics were added, however, the new articles were assigned numbers like 43B or 66-1/2 to fit within the existing scheme, resulting in an organizational nightmare.  Here, we survey the history of the Maryland Code in hopes of assisting your legislative history research.

The question of which version of the Annotated Code is "official" is oddly confusing, largely because "official" can be used in two different senses.  Courts & Jud. Proc. § 10-201 governs the status of the various forms of the Public General Laws of Maryland.  Until 2003, it provided that the 1957 edition of the Michie's Annotated Code (plus replacement volumes and supplements/pocket parts) was "adopted and made evidence of the Public General Laws of the State of Maryland as contained in the Code of Public General Laws of Maryland of 1888..." effective on date of publication.  Courts & Jud. Proc. § 10-201 (a).  Judge Wilner, a member of the recodification commission, wrote in 1994 that the 1888 Code was the last one to have been "adopted," and that subsequent codes have served merely as "evidence" of the laws of Maryland.  

The language in the statute, read in the light of Judge Wilner's interpretation of it, suggests an ambiguity as to the word "adopted."  A potentially-similar federal process underlies the status of titles of the United States Code.  The Office of the Law Revision Counsel of the U.S. House of Representatives is primarily responsible for the process of positive law recodification, by which entire titles of the U.S. Code are enacted as the positive law of the United States, for various reasons.  Those not so enacted (presently 25 out of the 54 titles of the U.S. Code) are considered prima facie evidence of the laws of the United States as set out in the Statutes at Large.  For further information on the significance of this process and a list of the positive-law titles, refer to the OLRC's webpage here.

It appears that Judge Wilner interprets the "adopted and made evidence of" language in § 10-201 as granting the 1957 Michie's Annotated Code a status similar to that of the non-positive law titles of the U.S. Code.  In other words, it's "official," but it's not official in the sense of its being positive law--merely evidence of the law as originally embodied in the 1888 Code and updated since.  For all practical purposes, this may be a distinction without substance, but Judge Wilner certainly anticipated some type of formal adoption by the General Assembly not already covered by § 10-201.

In 2003, the General Assembly amended the statute to grant both the 2002 edition of the West Annotated Code and its replacement volumes, supplements and pocket parts, and the Code of Public General Laws (a publication of the Department of Legislative Services) similar status to the Michie's Annotated Code.  Courts & Jud. Proc., § 10-201 (b), (c).  The statute has remained unchanged since.

The session laws of Maryland have only been codified since 1860, although a number of compilations not attempting a topical organization exist dating back to colonial times.  The last Code to be adopted by the Maryland Legislature was passed in 1888, and all subsequent "Codes" are mere "legalizations"--i.e., evidence of the laws of the State of Maryland.  A list of the Codes since 1860 is provided below, omitting supplements, and are all available as part of the Law Library's 12th-floor primary law collection: 

• 1860--Scott & M'Cullough Code adopted by the Maryland Legislature.  This had the effect of repealing and reenacting all preexisting laws without substantive change.  The 1860 Code would be the official statement of the laws of Maryland until the 1888 Code.
• 1874--The Mayer Code, consisting of 74 numbered articles, published.  The Legislature did not adopt this code, but considered it evidence of the laws of Maryland.
• 1888--Poe* Code, consisting of 100 numbered articles in alphabetical order, adopted by the Maryland Legislature.  Like the 1860 Code, the 1888 Code repealed and reenacted all prior laws without substantive change.  This Code, as amended by the General Assembly since its adoption, remains the official law of Maryland.  All subsequent codes, largely based on the 1888 Code, are evidence of this law.
• 1903/4--Revised Poe Code published.  This Code was republished in 1904 after the Great Baltimore Fire of 1904 destroyed most of the 1903 copies.
• 1911--Bagby Annotated Code published.  This was the first Annotated Code of Maryland, omitting the criminal laws, which were to follow in 1914.  This is also the first Maryland Code to be copyrighted by its author, a practice continuing to the present day.
• 1924--Second Bagby Annotated Code published.
• 1939--Flack Annotated Code published, based on the 1924 Code, but adding new articles.
• 1951--Second Flack Annotated Code published.
• 1957--Michie's Annotated Code of Maryland published.  The Code is based on the 1951 Code, but with rewritten annotations.
• 1970--Gov. Mandel creates committee to recodify the 1957 Code.
• 1973-Present--Title-by-title recodification of the 1957 Code proceeds.  As of the close of the 2017 Legislative Session, all of the former articles have been recodified.  Should the Legislature formally adopt the recodified Code, it will replace the 1888 Code as the official statement of Maryland law.

For a comprehensive history of the Code of Maryland, see Wilner, Alan M., "Blame it All on Nero:  Code Creation and Revision in Maryland," a 1994 essay from one of the leading participants in the present recodification effort which provides precise detail, and to which this list is indebted. 

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*Not that Poe, but his nephew, John Prentiss Poe, Sr., who served as Attorney General of Maryland from 1891-95.