Virginia Legal Research

"The Constitution of Virginia defines and limits the powers of the state government and the basic rights of its citizens. Virginia's Constitution was first enacted in 1776. In addition to frequent amendments, Virginia's Constitution has been revised five times (1830, 1851, 1870, 1902, and 1971). The current Constitution was ratified in 1971, and most recently was amended in [2019]. Changes to the Constitution may occur pursuant to Article XII by amendment or constitutional convention and, in either case, shall be submitted to the voters for approval."

Source: Virginia General Assembly

"Every law enacted by a regular or special session of the General Assembly is published in its entirety in the Acts of Assembly. The Acts of Assembly, collected in volumes by year, form the official law of the Commonwealth. Each act appears as a numbered chapter, assigned in consecutive ascending order based on the date of signing. The Code of Virginia . . . is an ongoing compilation of laws drawn from the Acts of Assembly and organized by subject-area title. While not the official law of the Commonwealth, the Code is useful and usable. An unannotated version of the Code is presented and regularly updated online by the Division of Legislative Automated Systems at the Virginia Law Portal."

Source: Executive Committee of the Virginia Code Commission