General Laws of Massachusetts
The Massachusetts General Laws are the state’s main collection of laws, organized by topic. They come from the Massachusetts General Court, the state legislature with two chambers.
Every time a law is enacted, it gets a chapter number in the Session Laws. These laws are published each year as Acts and Resolves by the Secretary of the Commonwealth. Most new laws are Acts; a Resolve usually creates a special commission to study an issue.
General Laws are the permanent, general rules. They are created or changed by Session Laws and then organized into a multi-volume code called the General Laws of Massachusetts. Not every Session Law becomes part of the General Laws; some are Special Acts that affect a specific city, town, or person.
In legal references, Massachusetts General Laws are abbreviated as M.G.L. or G.L. A citation shows the chapter and section, like Mass. Gen. L. c. 93A, § 9. The General Laws are arranged by parts, titles, and chapters.
The official unannotated General Laws are published every two years. Two common annotated editions are Massachusetts General Laws Annotated (M.G.L.A.) from West Publishing and Annotated Laws of Massachusetts (A.L.M.) from LexisNexis; both are available in books and online.
The General Laws replaced the earlier General Statutes (G.S.). The Massachusetts Constitution gives the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court the power to interpret these laws.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 07:20 (CET).