Using This Guide
The following sections explain terminology and other details regarding the way documents are referred to in this guide.
Terminology
To contain the length of the guide and to minimize repetition, some abbreviations and shortened phrases were used in the description of the documents. They are as follows:
- CCP: Code of Criminal Procedure, which in these documents refers to the code as revised in 1965
- MPC: Model Penal Code
- Derivations: These are references to statutes from which the proposed statutes are derived; may be referring to other Texas statutes or rules, state or federal statutes or rules, or the Model Penal Code.
- Cross-references: These are typically references to other parts of the Penal Code, but may also to other Texas codes, often to definition sections
- Repeals: Lists of the then-existing Texas laws that would be repealed by passing the proposed statute
- (Conforming) amendments: Lists of the then-existing Texas laws that would need to be amended to conform to the proposed statute; sometimes the text of the needed amendments is included, but not always
Titles
Many of the documents listed in this guide were bound together into volumes; in those cases each document has both a "document title" and a "volume title". If an entry has no "document title" but only a "volume title", that means the document was not bound with other documents and thus the volume title and document title are the same.
Some document titles do not accurately reflect the contents of the documents. In these cases, we have retained the titles of the document as expressed on the documents themselves to make it easier to find the physical copy. However, we have tried to clarify what the document actually addresses in the "summary" section.
Authors
Many documents either do not have authors listed or only list the name of the revision committee. However, different documents referred to the committee in different ways. As in the case with titles, we have listed the author as it is noted on the document to make it easier to find the physical document. Please note that when you see the following groups listed as "author", they are all referring to the same entity and used interchangeably:
- Texas State Bar Committee on Revision of the Penal Code
- State Bar of Texas. Committee on Revision of the Penal Code
- State Bar Committee on the Revision of the Texas Penal Code
- Texas Penal Code Revision Project
Alternatively, for a given document you may see an individual or individuals listed and their role in developing the document. These roles were "reporter", "revisor", and "research assistant." Again, all of these individuals were included when describing the document for the ease of matching up the physical document to its record in this guide.
Dates
Dates are taken from the documents themselves when possible. However, in some cases, no date was listed. Based on our evaluation of the documents, the library staff has assigned these documents approximate dates. Where the library staff has assigned a date, that date is noted in parentheses with a question mark - e.g. (1970?).