There is no easy way to conduct a comprehensive searches of all municipal ordinances in the United States by using one database.
The Nexis Uni database is the most comprehensive source of ordinances for the Harvard community. To access a specific municipal ordinances, click on the Menu at the top of the screen and select All Sources from the drop down menu.
Next, Under Category in the left column, click More and select the Statutes & Legislation link. Next, select the Municipal Code link under Category to limit your results to municipal codes grouped by state.
In the search results, browse by state and select the Municipal Code . This search will retrieve a list of all city and county ordinances as well as ordinances grouped within states (i.e. all Texas ordinances) Click on the (i) icon next to the each database name to see all city and county ordinances included within the selected state municipal code database.
To search all municipal codes simultaneously in Nexis Uni, click on the Advanced Search, Then, click on Select a specific content type and select Municipal Codes.
In addition to using Nexis Uni or to searching for municipal code on individual city or county websites, you can also search for ordinances on the following public web sites:
- http://www.amlegal.com/code-library/
- https://www.codebook.com/listing
- https://library.municode.com/ (links to county/local codes where available),
Lastly, think tanks and non-profit organizations may track and monitor city/county ordinances on specific topics. You can also search for law review articles or law books (called treatises) to see if they contain citations for ordinances.
You can view the HKS Library Legal Research Guide for access to law review databases and other general legal research resources.