Create a spot-on reference in Chicago 18, 17 and 16
General rules
Most referencing manuals provide only general recommendations on citing laws, without particular examples or templates to be used uniformly for referencing different countries' laws. Thus, The Chicago Manual of Style advises using either of the two referencing manuals for legal acts: The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation or ALWD Guide to Legal Citation.
This approach imposes significant difficulties as its aims only at scientists from particular states and considers only the specific legal system of their particular country. The web service Grafiati generates bibliographic references to laws, decrees, resolutions, etc. taking into account not only the official recommendations but also the guides of universities and libraries that deal with the aforesaid issue, hence delivering references adapted to the regulations of any country or jurisdiction.
Thus, the template for referencing a legal act in accordance with Chicago Style – author-date (17th ed.) is the following:
Country. Institution that passed the law. Year. Law Title. Law type Law number. Adopted date adopted. URL (if applicable).
Examples in a list of references
U.S. Congress. House. 2020. Making Emergency Supplemental Appropriations for the Fiscal Year Ending September 30, 2020, and for Other Purposes (The Heroes Act). HR 6800, 116th Cong., 2nd sess. Adopted 5 December 2020. https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/6800/text.
Wales. National Assembly. 2018. Public Health (Minimum Price for Alcohol) (Wales) (Act) 2018. Adopted 9 August 2018. https://www.legislation.gov.uk/anaw/2018/5/contents.