The Arizona Administrative Code contains the current Arizona regulations. There aren't many Arizona regulations related to immigration law, but it is still a good idea to review state administrative law research.
Board of Optometry Example
According to A.R.S. § 32-1704, the Board has the authority to "adopt, and may amend, rules consistent with this chapter governing the practice of the profession of optometry, for the performance of its duties under this chapter and for the examination of applicants for licenses..."
The Board's regulations are codified at A.A.C. R4-21-101 et. seq. You can see that there are regulations on a variety of topics.
The Arizona Administrative Code (A.A.C.) is the official publication for current Arizona regulations. When a new final regulation is enacted, it is codified by topic in the A.A.C. When an existing regulation is amended, it is updated in the A.A.C.
Organization
The A.A.C. is organized much like the Arizona Revised Statutes (A.R.S.). The final regulations are codified by topic in 21 TITLES that are divided into chapters, articles, and sections. The titles do not correspond to A.R.S. titles.
Citation Format
A citation to an A.A.C. section is in the following format: A.A.C. R4-21-306. The numbers correlate to the title, chapter, and article of the section.
Example
R4-21-306
Purpose
The Administrative Procedures Act requires all final regulations to be published in the Arizona Administrative Code (A.A.C.).
Sources for the Arizona Administrative Code
The A.A.C. is available from the Secretary of State's website and also from commercial publishers such as Westlaw, Lexis, etc.
There can be statutes and regulations on the SAME topic, so no regulatory research is COMPLETE without searching for applicable statutes (and no statutory research is COMPLETE without searching for applicable regulations).
Remember, a legislature creates an agency to enact regulations to enforce the legislative will (i.e. its statutes). So, oftentimes there are statutes and regulations on the same topic.
Example
The Arizona legislature (and the U.S. Congress) got tired of their constituents complaining that optometrists wouldn't give them their contact lenses prescription, so they had to buy contact lenses from their optometrists and couldn't shop around for a cheaper price. So, they both passed laws to force optometrists to give patients their prescriptions.
To find the Arizona law on this topic, you need to search BOTH the Arizona Revised Statutes and the Arizona Administrative Code.
Arizona Revised Statutes - A.R.S. § 32-1771
Arizona Administrative Code - A.A.C. R4-21-306
