Nevada Statutory Derivation

This guide helps people figure out where a Nevada law came from. Knowing the law’s history is important if no court has explained it. The guide shows how to read the notes that tell when a law was made or changed. If the note is in parentheses, it means the law is newer and added to the Nevada Revised Statutes (NRS). If the note has brackets too, it means the law is older and might have come from a law in another state.

The purpose of this guide is to outline the steps a researcher must take to determine where (i.e., which state) a specific Nevada statute came from. Determining a statute's derivation or origin is important for statutory interpretation when there are no Nevada Supreme Court or Court of Appeals opinions that have previously examined the statute. This guide describes how to take a statutory history note and research backward to determine the origin of the statute. 

The Legislative Counsel Bureau's Preface to the NRS is invaluable in performing statutory derivation research, and includes many examples of how to interpret the different variations of statutory history notes. 

When researching a current statute in the Nevada Revised Statutes (NRS), the history note provides important information about its origins and amendments. Here’s how to interpret it:

1. Statutes Added After the Creation of the NRS (1957)

If all the information in the history note is enclosed in parentheses, the statute was added to the NRS on or after its creation in 1957.

Example:
(Added to NRS by 1973, 567; A 1977, 1519; 1981, 132; 1989, 933; 2021, 1031)

This is the history note for NRS 278A.110:

• It was added to the NRS in 1973 (see page 567 of the 1973 Statutes of Nevada).
• It was subsequently amended four times: in 1977, 1981, 1989, and 2021.

2. Statutes That Existed Before the Creation of the NRS (Pre-1957)

If the history note includes information in brackets as well as parentheses, the statute existed before the NRS and may have been modeled on a law from another jurisdiction.

Example:
[33:169:1917; A 1945, 80; 1943 NCL § 5354] — (NRS A 1979, 1799)

This is the history note for NRS 403.570:

• The statute originated in 1917, derived from Section 33, Chapter 169 of the 1917 Statutes of Nevada.
• It was amended in 1945 (see page 80 of the 1945 Statutes of Nevada).
• The 1945 version appeared as Section 5354 in the 1943-1949 Supplement to the Nevada Compiled Laws (NCL).
• The portion in parentheses indicates changes to the statute in the NRS, where it was amended in 1979 (see page 1799 of the 1979 Statutes of Nevada).