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Administrative Law Research: Maryland Regulations

An introduction to resources and search strategies for Federal and Maryland Administrative Law Materials

Maryland Register

The Maryland Register (MR) is published biweekly. It updates and supplements COMAR with proposed and final regulations since the last time COMAR was updated. It uses cross-reference tables to locate proposed or final changes to existing COMAR regulations. 

It contains proposed and final regulations and is published by the Maryland Division of State Documents

The Maryland Register publishes the following information:

  • Governor's Executive Orders
  • Governor's Appointments to State Offices
  • Attorney General's Opinions 
  • Open Meetings Compliance Board Opinions 
  • State Ethics Commission Opinions
  • Court Rules
  • District Court Administrative Memoranda
  • Courts of Appeal Hearing Calendars
  • Agency Hearing and Meeting Notices
  • Other Documents considered to be in the public interest

Maryland Register in Print

UB Law Library has the Maryland Register in print since volume 1 was first printed in 1974. Recent editions are available in the Reading Reserve Room on the 7th Floor of the Library.

Maryland Register Online

The Division of State Documents Website hosts the Maryland Register in electronic format (http://www.dsd.state.md.us/MDR/mdregister.html). It is available for free, although it only houses the last 8 issues. Older editions can be purchased from the Division of State Documents.

Maryland Register in Research Databases

Materials printed in the Maryland Register are available from LexisAdvance, WestlawNext and BloombergLaw. 

LexisAdvance

LexisAdvance has the Maryland Register from January 14, 2000 through its current iteration. You can browse issues or search the content.

WestlawNext

WestlawNext  has the Maryland Register in its Maryland Proposed & Adopted Regulations – Current database. It has the full text of proposed and recently adopted rules and regulations, with coverage going back 2 years. Full coverage back to 2006 is available in the Maryland Proposed & Adopted Regulations – All database.

BloombergLaw

BloombergLaw also has material from the Maryland Register in its Maryland Rulemaking database. It includes proposed, final, emergency, temporary, and interim rules, plus regulatory notices dating back to 2011.

Other Sources for Maryland Regulations

Consult the Issuing Agency

Regulations are also available from the issuing agency - first check the agency Web site; if that doesn't work, call.

Historical Regulations

Regulations after 1974 can be found in back issues of the Maryland Register

Emergency Regulations

Emergency Regulations can be found in the Maryland Register. There is also a list of the Emergency Regulations in Effect on the Division of State Documents Website. Individual agency websites may also have copies of emergency regulations it promulgated. 

Finding the Maryland Register using Research Databases

The Maryland Register is available from a number different research databases including: 

LexisAdvance has the Maryland Register available since 2000. LexisAdvance also has two regulation-tracking tools available by visiting LexisAdvance > Browse > Sources > by Jurisdiction > Maryland and choosing the Administrative Codes and Regulations option from the left hand navigation bar.

The Maryland Register is not available from WestlawNext, but WestlawNext does feature the Maryland Proposed & Adopted Regulations - Current database which has the full text of current proposed and recently adopted rules and regulations for the state of Maryland. They also feature a Maryland Regulations Tracking Database with tracking information for proposed and recently adopted administrative rules and regulations that include a summary of the rule or regulation, status information, a citation or other administrative register information, and the sponsoring agency.

Maryland Rulemaking from BloombergLaw has Proposed, final, emergency, temporary, and interim rules, plus regulatory notices since 2011. 

Code of Maryland Regulations (COMAR)

The Code of Maryland Regulations (COMAR) is the official subject compilation of Maryland’s administrative regulations

COMAR Citations

COMAR is divided into 35 titles and subdivided by subtitles, numbered chapters, numbered regulations, subsections and paragraphs.

COMAR and statutory authority

If you are using the Annotated Code of Maryland related sections of the Code or Maryland Administrative Regulations (COMAR) are listed as annotations to the statutes. Additionally, the COMAR Deskbook includes an "Authority" table that lists the COMAR sections enacted under each section of the Annotated Code. The COMAR Deskbook is available in the Law Library Reserve Reading Room on the 7th Floor. 

Finding COMAR

COMAR in Print

COMAR is available in print. It contains no index, but an index is provided in Michie’s Annotated Code of MarylandCOMAR and the index provided by Michie are available in the Reading Reserve Room on the 7th floor of the UB Law Library.


COMAR Online

COMAR is available from the Division of State Documents Website (http://www.dsd.state.md.us/COMAR/ComarHome.html).

COMAR Online

COMAR is available from the Division of State Documents Website (http://www.dsd.state.md.us/COMAR/ComarHome.html).

COMAR Online allows 3 search options:

Search Option 1.

Search on a word or phrase, or enter the codification number 
 (search is word specific unless you add an asterisk *)

Search Option 2.

Search a specific Title 
 (will search only that title for word or codification number)

Search Option 3.

Access through Table of Contents Structure
 (will display table of contents by Title, Subtitle & Chapter)

COMAR Online from the Division of State Documents is the current version of COMAR and is updated biweekly based on effective dates as printed in the Maryland Register.


COMAR on Research Databases

COMAR is available from Lexis, Westlaw and Bloomberg.

LexisAdvance

COMAR is available from LexisAdvance. Users can browse the titles or perform keyword searches for material.

WestlawNext

WestlawNext also has historical versions of COMAR from 2002 to present in the Maryland Regulations database.

WestlawNext also contains Maryland Historical RegulationsMaryland Proposed & Adopted Regulations and allows for Maryland Regulation Tracking.

BloombergLaw

Bloomberg Law also has Maryland Regulations available from its State Regulatory Materials holdings.

Finding Regulations using Research Databases

The Code of Maryland Regulations is available from a number of research databases.

LexisAdvance has the text of the Code of Maryland Regulations as well as various regulation-tracking tools. 
WestlawNext has the complete set of permanent regulations as set forth in the Code of Maryland Regulations in their Maryland Regulations database.
BloombergLaw hosts the Code of Maryland Regulations with the full text of rules promulgated by Maryland Administrative Agencies.