The Connecticut General Statutes are the codified, permanent laws of Connecticut, organized by subject into Titles, Chapters, and Sections and published free online by the General Assembly. The current revision is prepared as of January 1, 2025, with a 2026 Supplement capturing changes from the most recent legislative session.1Connecticut General Assembly. General Statutes of Connecticut – Titles Whether you are checking a traffic rule, a landlord-tenant question, or a criminal penalty, that online text is the authoritative source.
Where to Find the Statutes
The Connecticut General Assembly’s website is the primary free source. The Legislative Commissioners’ Office maintains it, and the posted text reflects the current revision together with the latest Supplement.2Legislative Commissioners’ Office of the Connecticut General Assembly. General Statutes and Public Acts You can browse by Title or search for a specific section number.
Printed volumes sit on the shelves of the Connecticut State Library and the Judicial Branch law libraries around the state. They follow the same organization as the online version and are useful when you need to see how the law read at an earlier point in time, because older editions are kept in place.
Unannotated vs. Annotated Editions
The version on the General Assembly website is unannotated. You get the statutory text and short history notes showing when a section was enacted or amended, and nothing more. For most everyday questions, that is enough.
Annotated editions add more. Thomson West publishes Connecticut General Statutes Annotated, and LexisNexis publishes its own set; both include citations to court decisions interpreting each statute, references to related regulations, and links to secondary sources. The statutory text is the same across every version. The annotations differ because each publisher’s editors select case law independently. Annotated sets are available through law libraries, Westlaw, and Lexis, and they are what most practicing attorneys use.
How the Statutes Are Organized
The code has three tiers: Titles, Chapters, and Sections. A Title is the broadest grouping and covers a major subject. Title 14 covers motor vehicles and highway use; Title 53a contains the Penal Code.1Connecticut General Assembly. General Statutes of Connecticut – Titles Within a Title, Chapters narrow things down to specific topics, so a Title on business practices will have separate Chapters for consumer protection, trade practices, licensing, and so on.
The Section is the specific law. It states a requirement, prohibition, right, or penalty. When someone cites a Connecticut law, they are almost always pointing to a Section number.
New laws enter the code through what is called codification. When the General Assembly passes a Public Act, legal editors in the Legislative Commissioners’ Office place its provisions into the Titles and Chapters where they belong by subject.3Connecticut State Library. Public and Special Acts – Connecticut Statutes and Acts A Special Act, which has limited application or duration, is not folded into the General Statutes at all. That is why the code reads as a subject-organized body of law rather than a chronological list of enacted bills.
How to Read a Statute Citation
A Connecticut citation looks like this: Conn. Gen. Stat. § 1-1. The abbreviation stands for Connecticut General Statutes, and the section symbol (§) points to a specific provision.4Connecticut General Assembly. Connecticut General Statutes Chapter 1 – Construction of Statutes The number before the hyphen is the Title. The number after it is the Section within that Title. So § 14-227a sits in Title 14 (Motor Vehicles), and § 53a-35a sits in Title 53a (the Penal Code).
Lowercase letters or extra digits after the main Section number usually mark subsections added by later amendments. A parenthetical like (a) or (b) points to a specific subdivision inside the Section. The full citation matters because nearby sections often cover very different ground. Section 53a-35a lays out the authorized prison terms for felonies committed on or after July 1, 1981, including up to five years for a Class D felony.5Justia. Connecticut Code 53a-35a – Imprisonment for Any Felony Committed on or After July 1, 1981 The neighboring Section 53a-35 covers felonies committed before that date and sets different terms.
Revisions and Supplements
The complete set is republished every January of an odd-numbered year, incorporating every change the legislature made during the preceding sessions. In the even-numbered year in between, the state publishes a Supplement containing only the sections that were added, amended, or repealed in the most recent session.6Connecticut State Library. Publication and Revision – Connecticut Statutes and Acts
This matters when you are working from printed books. The main volume on the shelf may be a year or two behind. A fine, a filing deadline, or an entire section could have been changed since it went to press, so pull the matching Supplement before relying on anything the hardcover says. The online version on the General Assembly site handles this for you by incorporating the Supplement into the posted text.
When a New Law Takes Effect
A law does not necessarily apply the day the governor signs it. In Connecticut, new legislation typically takes effect on one of three standard dates: January 1, July 1, or October 1.7Connecticut General Assembly. Acts Effective – Connecticut General Assembly The actual date depends on language in the act itself. Some acts contain emergency provisions that make them effective upon passage, but those are the exception. Check the effective date in the Public Act before acting on a newly passed statute.
Some statutes also carry sunset provisions, which cause the law to expire automatically on a set date unless the legislature renews it. If a section you are reading has a sunset date, confirm that a reauthorization act extended it before assuming it still applies.
What the Statutes Alone Will Not Tell You
The General Statutes are not the only rules with the force of law. State agencies, including the Department of Consumer Protection and the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, issue administrative regulations compiled in the Regulations of Connecticut State Agencies, usually called the RCSA. The full set is freely available through the Secretary of the State’s office.
The two work together. A statute may require that certain professionals hold a license; the corresponding regulation spells out the application process, continuing education hours, and renewal deadlines. If you look only at the statute, you may miss what the law actually demands.
The statutes also sit inside a larger hierarchy. The Connecticut Constitution stands above them, and a statute that conflicts with it can be struck down. Above both is federal law. Under the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution, federal statutes and regulations displace state law when the two directly conflict; in some areas Congress has preempted state regulation entirely, while in others federal law sets a floor and states can impose stricter standards. Below the statutes sit the RCSA, municipal ordinances, and agency guidance, none of which can contradict the statutes that authorize them. When you find conflicting rules at different levels of government, this ordering tells you which one wins.
When the Text Is Not Clear
Sometimes a section does not answer your question on its face, and you need to understand what the legislature meant. The General Assembly’s website hosts public hearing testimony and transcripts of House and Senate floor debates, searchable through its advanced search page.8Connecticut Judicial Branch Law Libraries. How to Compile a Connecticut Legislative History The Connecticut State Library maintains edited versions of public hearing transcripts and has begun posting previously compiled legislative histories online, so check its database before building one from scratch. The Office of Legislative Research, inside the General Assembly, publishes reports on specific legal topics and proposed bills that often explain the policy behind a statute.