How are statutes ordered using arabic numbers, roman letters, and roman numerals, and how are those symbols assigned to subdivisions, paragraphs, subsections, divisions, and other terms??
Is there a statute defining how statutes are organized, or is it simply legal convention known by those who are trained in the legal profession? The state is NY if states differ in their law-writing.
This is true fo New York State law, as requested in the OP. Other states have somewhat different ways of putting things together.
Named or Implied in Statute:
The 60-odd major divisions of the Consolidated Laws, each of which has its own title, such as the Penal Law, the General Corporations Law, the Village Law, etc., is termed a Chapter.
Some of the longer, more complex Chapters are broken into Titles – Environmental Conservation Law comes quickly to mind here.
Every Chapter is broken down into Articles which are broad-brush subdivisions of the general topic of the Chapter. For example, the Estates, Powers, and Trusts Law may have an Article on Charitable Trusts, the Penal Law an Article on Thefts and related offenses.
Each Article is broken into Sections. As recodification goes on, there’s an ongoing attempt to make the Section numbers match those of the Articles, so that Section 1105 of the ___ Law is early in Article 11 of that law. This is generally what will be cited as a general rule, though in particular situations you may need to get specific within a section.
Common Terminology:
As far as I know there’s no official standard or required consistency here; What I present is common usage.
The numbered/alphabetically listed first-level subdivision of a section is usually termed a sub-section.
The next lAyer down is a paragraph. There may or may not be subparagraphs.
When the breakdowns get down to fragments of a sentence (“if it… (a) lasts more than three days, (b) causes more than $100 in damages, or © gives rise to a situation injurious to public health…”), they are termed clauses.
As noted above, these last few listings are not spelled out anywhere, and I’ve attempted to summarize common usages, which may differ markedly in the hands of various judges/lawyers/writers. What I give is for general informational use only; do not rely on it. IANAL.