Article III, Section 43 of the Texas Constitution ("Revision of Laws")
As amended November 4, 1986:
(a) The Legislature shall provide for revising, digesting and publishing the laws, civil and criminal; provided, that in the adoption of and giving effect to any such digest or revision, the Legislature shall not be limited by Sections 35 and 36 of this Article.
(b) In this section, "revision" includes a revision of the statutes on a particular subject and any enactment having the purpose, declared in the enactment, of codifying without substantive change statutes that individually relate to different subjects.
Editor Comments
As adopted in 1876, this section read: "The first session of the Legislature under this Constitution shall provide for revising, digesting and publishing the laws, civil and criminal; and a like revision, digest and publication may be made every ten years thereafter; provided, that in the adoption of and giving effect to any such digest or revision, the Legislature shall not be limited by Sections 35 and 36 of this Article." It has been amended once.
Recent Decisions
- Fleming Foods of Texas, Inc. v. Rylander, 6 S.W.3d 278, 286 (Tex. 1999) ("We are compelled to conclude that when, as here, specific provisions of a 'nonsubstantive' codification and the code as a whole are direct, unambiguous, and cannot be reconciled with prior law, the codification rather than the prior, repealed statute must be given effect. . . . When there is no room to interpret or construe the current law as embodying the old, we must give full effect to the current law. General statements of the Legislature's intent cannot revive repealed statutes or override the clear meaning of a new, more specific statute.")
Historic Decisions
- American Indemnity Co. v. City of Austin, 246 S.W. 1019, 1024 (Tex. 1922) ("The construction here given section 43, art. 3, under which the Revised Statutes were adopted, is one consistent with the general rule, which is that such Codes are not mere compilations of laws previously existing, but bodies of laws so enacted that laws previously existing and omitted therefrom cease to exist, and such additions as appear therein are the law from the approval of the act adopting the Code. . . . The history of the subject of codification of statutes supports in a most striking and conclusive manner the general rule above announced.")
Library Resources
- Vernon's Annotated Constitution of the State of Texas (this multi-volume and up-to-date resource is available at all law libraries and many municipal libraries)
- The Texas State Constitution: A Reference Guide (this one-volume resource is available at most law libraries and some municipal libraries)
- The Constitution of the State of Texas: An Annotated and Comparative Analysis (this two-volume resource is available at most law libraries and some municipal libraries)
Online Resources
- Constitution of the State of Texas (1876) (this resource is published and maintained by the University of Texas School of Law)
- Amendments to the Texas Constitution Since 1876 (this resource is published and regularly updated by the Legislative Council)
- Reports Analyzing Proposed Amendments (this resource is published and regularly updated by the Legislative Reference Library)