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The 1776 Philadelphia ConstitutionThe laws of the land, set down plainly — and put to the people, one provision at a time.

The Pennsylvania Register

Every law Pennsylvania has passed

55,382 acts of the General Assembly, from William Penn’s first assembly in 1682 to 2026. Until 1874 much of the Assembly’s work was “special” legislation for a single person, company or town: a divorce, a road, a tavern license. That year’s constitution barred local and special laws on most subjects, and the yearly count fell; lately it is about 150.

Not yet complete · The state has not yet digitized its session laws act by act for most years between 1851 and 1949. We filled what we could from scans of the printed volumes: every year from 1851 to 1875 and most sessions from 1877 to 1907. A computer read those titles, so they can contain misspellings, and a few acts in each year were missed. Most years from 1909 to 1949 are still thin (marked below). Every other year is complete, from 1682 through 1850 and from 1950 to today.

Clear

7 laws of the 1910s

Constitution of 1874

  1. Regulating the openings of buildings, upon, over, or under external fire-escapes

    Act 190 of 1913 · 1913 · Original text

  2. Providing for the incorporation, regulation, and government of cities of the third class

    Act 367 of 1913 · 1913 · Original text

  3. Providing a system of government for boroughs

    Act 192 of 1915 · 1915 · Original text

  4. Concerning townships; and revising, amending, and consolidating the law relating thereto

    Act ACT 319 OF 1917 of 1917 · 1917 · Original text

  5. Act regulating, requiring, and defining certain general specifications for the use and construction of permanent booths or enclosures for operating therein moving-picture machines - amend - promulgation of rulings by the Industrial Board of the Department

    Act 96 of 1917 · 1917 · Original text

  6. Act for the safety of persons from fire or panic in certain buildings, not in cities of the first and second classes, by providing proper exits, fire-escapes, fire-extinguishers, and other preventives of fire - amend - ways of egress; theatres, opera hous

    Act 357 of 1917 · 1917 · Original text

  7. Act for the safety of persons from fire or panic in certain buildings, not in cities of the first and second classes, by providing proper exits, fire escapes, fire extinguishers, and other preventives of fire - amend - requiring automatic sprinkler system

    Act 202 of 1919 · 1919 · Original text

By decade

Constitution of 19681968–today

Constitution of 18741874–1967

Constitution of 18381838–1873

Constitution of 17901790–1837

Constitution of 17761776–1789

Province of Pennsylvania1682–1775

1682–1801: the Statutes at Large of Pennsylvania. 1802–1974: the Pamphlet Laws (Laws of the General Assembly). Both from the scans published by the Pennsylvania Legislative Reference Bureau, which link to each original page. 1975 onward: the General Assembly’s own record of legislation enacted, which adds approval dates and bill numbers. Years the Bureau hasn’t indexed act by act come from the annual Laws of the General Assembly as scanned by the Internet Archive and Google Books: we split each volume into acts by their approval lines, and each one links to its scanned page. Before 1975 each year’s appropriation acts were scanned as one bundle, so they aren’t listed one by one. Proposed constitutional amendments, vetoed bills and reorganization plans are left out. Subject lines are the Bureau’s and the General Assembly’s, not the laws’ full titles.