GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA
SESSION 2011
SESSION LAW 2011-97
HOUSE BILL 306
AN ACT to transfer the general statutes commission, the responsibility for the codification of the General statutes, the revisor of statutes and the staff for these functions to the General Assembly.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1. Article 2 of Chapter 114 of the General Statutes is recodified as Article 7D of Chapter 120 of the General Statutes to be entitled "Codification of Statutes" and as recodified, reads as rewritten:
"Article 7D.
"Codification of Statutes.
"§ 120-36.21.
Creation of Division; powers and duties.Codification of
Statutes.
The Attorney General shall set up in the Department of
Justice a division to be designated as the Division of Legislative Drafting and
Codification of Statutes. There shall be assigned to this Division by the
Attorney General duties as follows:The Legislative Services Officer
shall assign to staff of the General Assembly the following duties:
(1) To
prepare bills to be presented to the General Assembly at the request of the
Governor, and the officials of the State and departments thereof, and members
of the General Assembly, and to advise with said officials in connection
therewith, and to advise with and assist counties, cities, and towns in the
drafting of legislation to be submitted to the General Assembly.
(2)(1) To supervise the
recodification of all the statute law of North Carolina and supervise the
keeping of such recodifications current by including therein all laws hereafter
enacted by supplements thereto issued periodically, all of which
recodifications and supplements shall be appropriately annotated.
(3)(2) In order that the laws of
North Carolina, as set out in the General Statutes of North Carolina, may be
made and kept as simple, as clear, as concise and as complete as possible, and
in order that the amount of construction and interpretation of the statutes
required of the courts may be reduced to a minimum, it shall also be the
duty of the Division of Legislative Drafting and Codification of Statutes to
establish and maintain a system of continuous statute research and correction.
To that end the Division staff shall:
a. Make a systematic study of the general statutes of the State, as set out in the General Statutes and as hereafter enacted by the General Assembly, for the purpose of ascertaining what ambiguities, conflicts, duplications and other imperfections of form and expression exist therein and how these defects may be corrected.
b. Consider
such suggestions as may be submitted to the Division with respect to the
existence of such defects and the proper correction thereof.
c. Prepare for submission to the General Assembly from time to time bills to correct such defects in the statutes as its research discloses.
"§ 120-36.22. Revisor of Statutes.
The member of the staff of the Attorney General General
Assembly who is assigned to perform the duties prescribed by G.S. 114-9(3)
G.S. 120-36.21(2) shall be known as the Revisor of Statutes.Statutes
and he shall be subject to all the provisions of Chapter 126 of the General
Statutes relating to the State Personnel System."
SECTION 2. Article 1 of Chapter 114 of the General Statutes is amended by adding a new section to read:
"§ 114-8.4. Legislative assistance to agencies and local governments.
The Department of Justice may (i) prepare bills to be presented to the General Assembly at the request of the Governor and the officials and departments of the State and advise in connection therewith and (ii) advise with and assist counties, cities, and towns in the drafting of legislation to be submitted to the General Assembly."
SECTION 3. G.S. 164-10 reads as rewritten:
"§ 164-10. Supplements to the General Statutes; rearrangement of laws, and correction of errors.
The Division of Legislative Drafting and Codification of
Statutes of the Department of Justice, under the direction and supervision of
the Attorney General, Legislative Services Office shall have the
following duties and powers with regard to the supplements to the General
Statutes:
(1) Within six
months after the adjournment of each General Assembly, or as soon thereafter as
possible, the Division Legislative Services Office shall cause to
be published under its supervision, cumulative pocket supplements to the
General Statutes, and any replacement or recompiled volumes thereof, which
shall contain an accurate transcription of all laws of a general and permanent
nature enacted by the General Assembly, the material contained in the next
preceding pocket and interim supplements, supplement, complete
and accurate annotations to the statutes, appendix and other material
accumulated since the publication of the next preceding pocket and interim
supplements, supplement, and a cumulative index of said material.
(2) Periodically,
every six months after the publication and issuance of a cumulative pocket supplement
following a session of the General Assembly, or as soon thereafter as possible,
except when the publication of the cumulative pocket supplement makes it
unnecessary, the Division Legislative Services Office shall
cause to be published an interim supplement containing all pertinent
annotations and other material found by the Division Legislative
Services Office to be necessary and proper, accumulating since the
publication of the said cumulative pocket supplement or the last interim
supplement.
(3) In the
preparation of the general and permanent laws enacted by the General Assembly
the Division Legislative Services Office is hereby authorized:
a. To rearrange the order of chapters, subchapters, articles, sections and other divisions or subdivisions;
b. To provide titles for any such divisions or subdivisions and section titles or catchlines when they are not provided by such laws;
c. To adopt a uniform system of lettering or numbering sections and the various subdivisions thereof and to reletter or renumber sections and section subdivisions in accordance with such uniform system;
d. To rearrange definitions in alphabetical order;
e. To rearrange lists of counties in alphabetical order; and
f. To
make such other changes in arrangement and form that do not change the law as
may be found by the Division Legislative Services Office necessary
for an accurate, clear and orderly codification of such general and permanent
laws."
SECTION 4. Effective beginning with the first supplements or replacement or recompiled volumes of the General Statutes that are printed under the supervision of the Legislative Services Office, G.S. 164-11(a) reads as rewritten:
"(a) The supplements
to the General Statutes of North Carolina, or to any replacement or recompiled
volumes of the General Statutes, when printed under the supervision of the Division
of Legislative Drafting and Codification of Statutes of the Department of
Justice, Legislative Services Office shall establish prima facie the
general and permanent laws of North Carolina contained in said
supplements."
SECTION 5. G.S. 164-12 reads as rewritten:
"§ 164-12. Creation; name.
(a) There is hereby created and established a commission to be known as "The General Statutes Commission."
(b) The Commission shall be located within the General Assembly for administrative purposes only."
SECTION 6. G.S. 164-13(a) reads as rewritten:
"(a) It shall be the duty of the Commission:
(1) To advise and
cooperate with the Division of Legislative Drafting and Codification of
Statutes of the Department of Justice Legislative Services Office in
the work of continuous statute research and correction for which the Division
Legislative Services Office is made responsible by G.S. 114-9(3).120-36.21(2).
(2) To advise and
cooperate with the Division of Legislative Drafting and Codification of
Statutes Legislative Services Office in the preparation and issuance
by the Division of supplements to the General Statutes pursuant to
G.S. 114-9(2).120-36.21(1).
(3) To make a continuing study of all matters involved in the preparation and publication of modern codes of law.
(4) To recommend to the General Assembly the enactment of such substantive changes in the law as the Commission may deem advisable.
(5) To receive and consider proposed changes in the law recommended by the American Law Institute, by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws or by other learned bodies."
SECTION 7. G.S. 164-15 reads as rewritten:
"§ 164-15. Meetings; quorum.
The Commission shall hold not less than two regular meetings
each year, of which one shall be held in June and one in November, at such
times during those months as may be fixed therefor by the Commission itself.
The Commission may hold such establish a schedule for other
regular meetings as it may provide for by its rules. meetings. Special
meetings may be called by the chairman, or by any two members of the
Commission, upon such notice and in such manner as may be fixed therefor by the
rules of policies adopted by the Commission. The regular June and
November meetings of the Commission shall be held in Raleigh, but the
Commission may provide for the holding of other meetings from time to time at
any other place or places in the State. The first meeting of the Commission
shall be held in June 1945 upon the call of the Attorney General at such time
and upon such notice as he may designate. A majority of the members of the
Commission shall constitute a quorum."
SECTION 8. G.S. 164-17 reads as rewritten:
"§ 164-17.
Committees; rules.Committees.
The Commission may elect, or may authorize its chairman to
appoint, such committees of the Commission as it may deem proper. The
Commission may adopt such rules policies and guidelines not
inconsistent with this Article as it may deem proper with respect to any and
all matters relating to the discharge of its duties under this Article."
SECTION 9. G.S. 164-18 reads as rewritten:
The Commission shall submit to each regular session of the General Assembly a report of its work during the preceding two years, together with such recommendations as it may deem proper. The Commission may report recommended legislation to each annual session of the General Assembly as it deems appropriate."
SECTION 10. G.S. 143A-53 is repealed.
SECTION 11. The statutory authority, powers, duties, functions, records, personnel, property, and unexpended balances of appropriations, allocations, or other funds of the General Statutes Commission are transferred from the Department of Justice to the General Assembly, with all of the elements of a Type II transfer as defined by G.S. 143A-6. The administrative rules of the General Statutes Commission are repealed but are deemed adopted as policies of the General Statutes Commission until it amends or repeals them. The Revisor of Statutes shall notify the Codifier of Rules of the repeal, and the Codifier of Rules may enter the repeal in the Administrative Code.
SECTION 12. All contractual rights and duties of the State of North Carolina, acting through its Attorney General and the Division of Legislative Drafting and Codification of Statutes of the North Carolina Department of Justice under G.S. 164-10, shall remain unchanged but shall be executed by the Legislative Services Office. Nothing in this act shall affect any currently existing agreed upon discount for printed materials to be provided by a vendor to the North Carolina Department of Justice.
SECTION 13. The following positions are transferred to the General Assembly from the Department of Justice: two Assistant Attorney General positions (Position #60010185 and #60010191) and one Administrative Assistant position (Position #60010189).
SECTION 14. This act becomes effective June 1, 2011.
In the General Assembly read three times and ratified this the 23rd day of May, 2011.
s/ Walter H. Dalton
President of the Senate
s/ Dale R. Folwell
Speaker Pro Tempore of the House of Representatives
s/ Beverly E. Perdue
Governor
Approved 11:00 a.m. this 26th day of May, 2011