There is always a need to know what are you paying your taxes for. That means in the first place just to know how is your government (not only the Council of Ministers, but also the Parliament) is doing its job. Thus the government produces regulations and rules and to be able to properly assess the rulers, you have to know these rules, i.e. to have access to them: not using a mediator and/or paying a bunch of money (6 010 lv./year for the electronic version now, which is more than 15 average month salaries), but enjoying free access on the Internet to authentic and functional files. Is that really so hard? It must be since it has not been done yet. Let us look at some other countries: Probably not by accident Romania and Bulgaria still have not joined the EU. While it is a bit better in Romania you still need to subscribe and pay there to know what your rights and responsibilities are. Some better practices: All EU-member states publish their legislation and official announcements on Internet. In some of the countries there is just one legal paper, called legal gazette, while in others there are generally two types a legal gazette for the national legislation and an official gazette for all kinds of approved official information. Country, name, type and Internet address of the official paper Institution responsible for publishing the official paper Texts and date (of the texts) Official character? European Union Official Journal of
the European Union legal gazette. Office for
Official Publications of the European Communities Free of charge PDF from 1998 TIFF from 1952 See here.
Belgium Belgisch Staatsblad - legal gazette - here or here. Belgisch
Staatsblad - part of the
Federal Public Service Justice Free of charge ASCII and PDF
from 1997 Yes, just five copies are published on paper See here.
Czech Republik Sbírka
zákonů - Sb. (Collection of Acts) - legal gazette Sbírka
mezinárodních smluv - Sb.m.s. (Collection of
International Treaties) - legal gazette. Ministerstvo vnitra
České republiky Free of charge PDF from 4.4.1945 See here.
Denmark Lovtidende (Official Journal) - legal gazette (Civil Affairs
Agency) part of Ministry of Justice Free of charge HTML from 1995 After adopting an amendment in law, yes + just one paper copy See here.
Germany Bundesgesetzblatt (BGBl.) (German Federal Legal Gazette) - legal
gazette. Bundesanzeiger (BAnz) (Federal Gazette)
- official gazette Bundesanzeiger
Verlagsgesellschaft mbH (Bundesanzeiger Publishing House Co. Ltd.)
private company; The federal government through federal Ministry of Justice
holds 35,1 % of the shares Free of charge PDF from 1998 See here.
Estonia Riigi Teataja, RT (State Gazette) - legal gazette. Riigi Teataja
Kirjastus (State Gazette Publishing House) a state owned
company Free of charge HTML and XML from
2002 Yes, + five paper copies See here.
Greece Fill Efimerida Tis
Kivernisis - F.E.K. (National Gazette Issues) - legal gazette. Ethniko Typografio (National Printing House of Greece) under Ministry of Interior,
public administration and decentralization Free of charge No See here.
Spain Boletín Oficial del
Estado (Official State Bulletin) - legal gazette. Boletín
Oficial del Estado (Official State Bulletin) independent organization
Free of charge XML from 1960 PDF from 1998 IFF from 1875 No, but t he electronic version is considered
authentic See here.
France Journal Officiel de la
République française (JORF) (Official Journal
of French Republic) - legal gazette. Direction des
Journaux officiels (Directorate of Official Journals) a state office
under the Secretary-General of the Cabinet Free of charge PDF, TIFF, HTML
from 1990 Yes, since 1 July 2004. See here.
Ireland Acts of the Oireachtas and
Statutory Instruments Iris Oifigiúil (Irish State
Gazette) - legal gazette - http://www.oireachtas.ie
(click on 'Legislation') Office of Public
Works Free of charge PDF See here.
Italy Gazzetta Ufficiale della
Repubblica italiana (Official Gazette of the
Italian Republic) - legal gazette. Ministero della
Giustizia - Direzione della Gazzetta Ufficiale della Repubblica Italiana (Ministry of
Justice - Directorate of the Official Gazette of the Italian Republic) part
of Ministry of Justice Free of charge ASCII and PDF from
1989 No, but a new amendment will change this const
elation See here.
Cyprus Epissimi Efimerida tis
Dimokratias tis Kyprou (Official Gazette of the
Republic of Cyprus) - legal gazette. Government
Printing Office part of Ministry of
Finance Free of charge From 2004 See here.
Latvia Latvijas Vēstnesis (Latvian Herald)
- legal gazette. Latvijas
Vēstnesis, BO VSIA (Latvian Herald,
Ltd) a company, owned by the government through, Ministry of Justice Partially free of charge, partially not HTML from 1996 See here.
Lithuania Valstybės Žinios (Official
Gazette) - legal gazette. Valstybės imonė Seimo leidykla Valstybės žinios (The Publishing House of the Parliament of Lithuania
Valstybės žinios) state
company, owned by the Parliament Subscription for PDF PDF + Microsoft
Word See here. Luxembourg Mémorial A - legal gazette Mémorial B, Mémorial C
- official
gazette. Ministère
d'Etat - Service Central de Législation, éditeur du
Mémorial (Ministry of State Central Legislative Service,
Editor of the Mémorial) a government agency Free of charge Mémorial A, PDF from 1935 See here. Hungary Magyar Közlöny MK (Hungarian Official Journal) - legal
gazette. Magyar Hivatalos
Közlönykiadó (Hungarian Official Journal
Publisher) a company, owned by the government Free of charge ASCII from 1990 HTML from 1998 others from 1996 See here. Malta Il-Gazzetta tal-Gvern ta'
Malta (The Malta Government Gazette) - legal gazette. Dipartiment ta'
l-Informazzjoni (DOI) (Department of Information DOI) under the Prime
Minister Free of charge PDF from June
2003 See here. The Netherlands Staatsblad (State Journal) - legal gazette. Nederlandse Staatscourant (Dutch State
Gazette) - official gazette. SDU Uitgevers BV (SDU Publishers
Ltd) a company, downed by the government Free of charge PDF from 1995 HTML from 1998 XML from 2003 No, however after adopting an amendment in law
this would be possible See here. Austria Bundesgesetzblatt (Federal Law Journal) - legal gazette. Amtsblatt zur
Wiener Zeitung (Official Gazette of the Vienna Newspaper) - official
gazette Bundeskanzleramt,
Verfassungsdienst (Federal Chancellery, Constitutional Service) part
of the Federal Chancellery The official
gazette is published by the Wiener Zeitung Free of charge HTML from 1983 to
2003 PDF from 1999 XML from 2004 Yes, paper copies are not published at all See here. Poland Dziennik Ustaw
Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej (Dz.U.) (Journal of Laws
of the Republic of Poland) - legal gazette. Dziennik Urzędowy Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej Monitor Polski (MP) (Official Journal
of the Republic of Poland Monitor Polski) - official gazette Rządowe
Centrum Legislacji - Redakcja Dziennika Ustaw Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej oraz
Dziennika Urzędowego Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej Monitor Polski(Governmental
Centre for Legislation - Editorial office of the Journal of Laws of the
Republic of Poland a state agency Official Journal
of the Republic of Poland "Monitor Polski") Free of charge PDF from 1995 See here. ?????????? Diário da
República (DR) (Journal of the Republic) - legal gazette. Imprensa Nacional
- Casa da Moeda, SA (The Portuguese Official Printing Office and Mint)
a company, owned by the government Free of charge PDF from 1960 See here. Slovenia Uradni list
Republike Slovenije (The Official Gazette of the
Republic of Slovenia) - legal gazette. Javno podjetje
Uradni list Republike Slovenije d. o. o. (The Public Company Official
Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia d.o.o.) the major owner the state Free of charge PDF from 1995 HTML from 1995 See here. Slovak Republic Zbierka zákonov Slovenskej republiky Ministerstvo
spravodlivosti Slovenskej republiky (Ministry of Justice of the
Slovak Republic) part of the Ministry of Justice Free of charge From 1945 HTML and PDF No See here. Finland Suomen
säädöskokoelma / Finlands författningssamling (Statutes of Finland) - legal gazette. Virallinen
lehti, Virle (The Official Gazette) - official gazette Edita Publishing
Oy (Edita Publishing Ltd) company, owned by the government Free of charge PDF from 1995 See here. Sweden Svensk
författningssamling (SFS) (Swedish Code of
Statutes) - legal gazette. Post-och
Inrikes Tidningar (Swedish national
Official, under the responsibility of the Swedish Academy) - official gazette Granskningsenheten,
Justitiedepartementet (Division for Legal and Linguistic Draft Revision,
Ministry of Justice) Ministry of Justice Free of charge ASCII PDF HTML See here. United Kingdom Acts of parliament and statutory instruments are
published as separate titles and are not published as part of a legal gazette. There are annual bound
editions of both, the statutory
Instruments and all the acts
of parliament produced in
a year. These are bound and
published in numerical order The London
Gazette, the Belfast Gazette and the Edinburgh Gazette - official
gazettes. Her Majesty's Stationery
Office Free of charge Acts from 1988 Statutory
instruments from 1987 See here. How is it in America? There exist a number of different resources for the procurement of legal information in the United States. Perhaps the most widely referred to is the Federal Register, which is available through the Government's GPO Access portal. The Federal Register is a legal newspaper published by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) of the United States Government. Its purpose is to provide access to the official texts of federal laws, Presidential documents, administrative regulations/notices, and descriptions of Federal organizations, their programs, and activities. Established in 1935 by the Federal Register Act, it contains most routine publications and notices from government agencies; classified documents notwithstanding. All executive orders and administrative regulations must be published in the Federal Register if they are to be legally binding.
[1]
As previously mentioned, the Federal Registry is available through GPO Access. GPO Access is a service provided by the United States Government Printing Office that provides free electronic access to information produced by the Federal Government. The information provided on the site is the official published version and the information may generally be used without restrictions. The service is funded by the Federal Depository Library Program and grew out of Public Law 103-40, otherwise known as the Government Printing Office Electronic Information Enhancement Act of 1993. Although there are no direct statistics on users who access the Federal Register specifically, there are figures on the number of total documents received. The monthly number of retrievals is evidence alone that the public is taking advantage of the free electronic access. The statistics available on the GPO Access website have tracked the number of retrievals from January 1996 to October 2001. Despite the fact that the most recent numbers are over 4 years old, there is a visible and robust trend of increasing retrievals. For example, the number of total retrievals in January 1996 numbered 1,956,342. By October of 2001 that number had climbed to 36,477,548. The overall numbers suggest that retrieval rates increase by an average of approximately 304,958 per month. In total, the web page has tracked over 1 billion retrievals between 1996 and 2001.
[2]
If retrievals from the Registry constitute only 10% of the total (and this is a completely random estimation) then we can assume that this equates to approximately 100,000,000 retrievals. When considering that most retrievals are well over 1 page, the costs of materials, printing, and labor pale in comparison to the costs of developing and maintaining the website. Not so eager to talk about the practice in Bulgaria right now. Actually that is not in the least my fault.
[1]
University of Rhode Island - http://www.uri.edu/library/guides/subject/govlaw/fedreg.html
[2]
GPO Access - http://www.gpoaccess.gov/biennial/2001/appendixd.txt | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
