Arizona Revised Statutes

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Divisions
The Arizona Revised Statutes is divided into 58 titles (listed below), which deal with broad, logically organized areas of legislation. Titles may optionally be divided into chapters, articles, parts, and subparts. All titles have sections (represented by a §), as their basic coherent units, and sections are numbered sequentially across the entire title without regard to the previously-mentioned divisions of titles. Sections are often divided into (from largest to smallest) subsections, paragraphs, subparagraphs, clauses, subclauses, items, and subitems. The Legislature, by convention, names a particular subdivision of a section according to its largest element. For example, "subsection (c)(3)(B)(iv)" is not a subsection but a clause, namely clause (iv) of subparagraph (B) of paragraph (3) of subsection (c); if the identity of the subsection and paragraph were clear from the context, one would refer to the clause as "subparagraph (B)(iv)".

Not all titles use the same series of subdivisions above the section level, and they may arrange them in different order. For example, in Title 26 (the tax code), the order of subdivision runs:


 * Title
 * Chapter
 * Article
 * Part
 * Subpart
 * Section
 * Subsection
 * Paragraph
 * Subparagraph
 * Clause
 * Subclause
 * Item
 * Subitem

The "Section" division is the core organizational component of the Arizona Revised Statutes, and the "Title" division is always the largest division of the Arizona Revised Statutes. Which intermediate levels between Title and Section appear, if any, varies from Title to Title.

The word "title" in this context is roughly akin to a printed "volume," although many of the larger titles span multiple volumes. Similarly, no particular size or length is associated with other subdivisions; a section might run several pages in print, or just a sentence or two. Some subdivisions within particular titles acquire meaning of their own.