Old RCWs

Sometimes you need to know not what the law is today but what it was at some time in the past.

The Office of the Code Reviser (a legislative office) now makes that easier to research online: it has posted an RCW Archive going back to 2002. For each year you can see a PDF of the official print RCW or RCW supplement. (The full RCW is reprinted in even-numbered years and a supplement in odd-numbered years.)

Other ways to look for older versions of the Revised Code of Washington (or its annotated equivalents):

• Washington Historical Statutes on Westlaw (basically the Revised Code of Washington Annotated): WA-STANN89, WA-STANN90, etc.


• Legislative Archive on LexisNexis (basically the Annotated Revised Code of Washington (follow the path: Washington > Find Statutes, Regulations, Administrative Materials & Court Rules > By Statutes & Regulations > Legislative Archive) (begins with 1992)


• the Law Library's print collection:


• current format of RCW (big paperbound volumes with supplements in the off years), 1974-date, KFW30 1951 .A2 at Classified Stacks and Special Collections Washington


• original format of RCW (looseleaf pages, saved by the library and organized by title, covering 1951-1972): KFW30 1951 .A19dp at Special Collections Washington


• superseded volumes of the Annotated Revised Code of Washington, 1994-date, KFW30 1994 .A43 at Special Collections Washington


• superseded volumes of West's Revised Code of Washington Annotated, 1961-date, KFW30 1961 .B3 at Classified Stacks and Special Collections Washington


• old pocket parts from West's Revised Code of Washington Annotated, 1986-date, KFW30 1961 .B3 P.P. at Special Collections Washington

You might not be familiar with the location "Special Collections Washington." That's because it's not in a public area of the library. Because resources like those displaced looseleaf pages from the 1960s are both rare and important for future researchers, we keep them in a locked room. They're still usable, though -- you just need to ask a staff member at the Circulation Desk or in the Reference Office to get you the volumes you need.

You won't always need to look up the law as it was in 1964 or 1978. But when you do, you'll be glad that our predecessors in the Law Library held onto these materials even after they were superseded.