Why are some titles of the USC “positive law” and others only”prima facie evidence of the law”?
Unlike the Revised Statutes, which were enacted in theirentirety as positive law (and which repealed the individualstatutes from which they were derived), the USC was originally onlya prima facie restatement of the federal statute law, rearrangedand compiled by its editors from the Revised Statutes and from manyvolumes of the Statutes at Large. Since it is much easier to citeto the USC directly as positive law, rather than to the Statutes atLarge, Congress has gradually, title by title, been enacting theUSC into positive law (see generally 1 USC 204(a)).
