Prepared and distributed by the Boston City Council July 2007
THE CHARTER OF THE CITY OF BOSTON
The Boston City Charter is not contained within a single document. It is "a series of State statutes and not a single code." City Council of Boston v. Mayor of Boston, 383 Mass. 716, 719 (1981). It has also been referred to as "a patchwork of special acts whose application requires consideration of their evolution [and scrutiny of the legislative history]." City Council of Boston v. Mayor of Boston, 24 Mass.App.Ct. 663, 664 (1987). The modern charter is a collection of laws consisting of the surviving portions of the charter approved by the Massachusetts Great and General Court (the legislature) in 1909 (Acts of 1909, Chapter 486) as significantly amended with broad strokes in 1948 (Acts of 1948, Chapter 452) and 1951 (Acts of 1951, Chapter 376). more »
