Dates and time in Danish law & planned time management in Lex Dania XML Dan Bjerring – Legislation Technique Division, Law Department, Ministry of Justice Lise Garkier Hendriksen – Secretariat for Legal Information, Ministry of Justice

Dates and time in Danish law today

The making of an act The Parliament (Folketinget) The Government 1st reading 2nd reading 3rd reading Passage committees Royal Assent The Queen Promulgation (publication in the Gazette)

Basic dates Passage of bill 28 May 2004 Royal Assent (official date of signature) 9 June 2004 Promulgation / publication in Gazette 10 June 2004

The coming into force The date of the coming into force limits the period from which the act can (and shall) be enforced by the authorities: the judiciary, police, etc. Usually stated explicitly in the act - e. g. 1 July Can however be provided in the act that the date of the coming into force wholly or partly is decided administratively by the minister of the particular field of law. § 278. The act comes into force 1 July The Minister of Justice determines the date of the coming into force of chapter 4.

Date of coming into force Passage of bill 28 May 2004 Royal Assent (official date of signature) 9 June 2004 Promulgation / publication in Gazette 10 June 2004 Coming into force 1 July 2004

Validity / application The period of validity limits the period of time within which matters can be comprehended by the act - the act is applicable to matters taking place within this period of time. Usually identical with the date of the coming into force Often only a start date, not an end date, exists. - However, sunset clauses determining the day of repeal of the act do appear occasionally. The start date can be a date set before the date of the coming into force, though it is regarded legally inappropriate. § 278. The act comes into force 1 July § 278, subs. 2. The act is applicable from 1 January 2004.

Date of validity and date of the coming into force - identical Passage of bill 28 May 2004 Royal Assent (official date of signature) 9 June 2004 Promulgation / publication in Gazette 10 June 2004 Coming into force and validity/applicability 1 July 2004

Date of validity and date of the coming into force - not identical Passage of bill 28 May 2004 Royal Assent (official date of signature) 9 June 2004 Promulgation / publication in Gazette 10 June 2004 Coming into force 1 July 2004 Validity/applicability – can (and shall) be applied in matters taking place from – 1 January 2004

Amendment of an act An act can have provisions that amends or repeals other acts, wholly or partly The amendments can be of whole sections, subsections or only single words § 277. Act no. 966 of 23 October 2001 is amended by the following: 1. § 23 shall be worded as follows: § 23. Bla blabla bla. 2. In § 54 substitute DKK with DKK

Date of coming into force - amendment The date of coming into force of the amendments can differ from the day of the coming into force of the act in its entirety. § 277. Act no. 966 of 23 October 2001 is amended by the following: 1. § 23 shall be worded as follows: § 23. Bla blabla bla. 2. In § 54 substitute DKK with DKK § 278. The act comes into force 1 July § 278, subs. 2. § 277, no. 1, comes into force 1 January §278, subs. 3. § 277, no. 2, comes into force 1 June 2005.

Various dates of the coming into force Passage of bill 28 May 2004 Royal Assent (official date of signature) 9 June 2004 Promulgation / publication in Gazette 10 June 2004 Coming into force 1 July 2004 Coming into force of § 277 (Partly) 1 January 2005 (Partly) 1 June 2005

Planned time management in Lex Dania XML

Lex Dania xml schema structure LexDania.xsd Retsinfo.xsd Bill.xsdOrder.xsd Act.xsd - defines the 5 building blocks (content encoding, addressing, meta data, structure, reference constructions) - domain specific schemas defining meta data, titles, tables, graphics etc. - defines the characteristics of each document type Application schema level Intermediary schema level Meta-schema level

Two kinds of dates Time management is part of the meta data in the top of each document (application schema) Single physical actions signature, promulgation (official public notation) etc. placed directly in elements in the source of the document Dates referring to a period of time enforcement, validity etc. placed in elements by reference to an id for a start date and an end date.

Example: The act on annual accounts - meta data concerning the whole document <Document xmlns:xsi=" xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation=ACT M.Retsinfo.LexDania_1.0.xsd"> Act on annual accounts AD Lovtidende A Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs

Meta data concerning the whole document - continued (1) Given on Christiansborg Castle, Under Our Royal Hand and Seal Margrethe R Ole Stavad / Minister of Economic and Business Affairs

Meta data concerning the whole document - continued (2) 2 A Following documents contain provisions on the coming into force of this document: 5 B

Meta data concerning the whole document - continued (3) 5 B A ACT MAIN A

Meta data for single provisions - with diverging dates of enforcement or validity

Versions of documents today Amendments to acts are always passed as the very content of an act or as part of another act Consolidated acts (a new version of an act and its later amendments) are made on the initiative of the ministry administrating the act in question All 4 documents below are separately officially published Act with amendments (1) Original act Consolidated act Act with amendments (2)

Versions of documents in xml Exact mark up of different dates of the coming into force and validity enables us to (in principle): - show automatically generated versions of documents with the exact valid content on a chosen date

Problems identified How small units one can change by acts of amendments? - most likely, we will not be able to handle all kinds of amendments as they occur today, e.g.: 2. In § 11, § 36 and § 125 substitute DKK with DKK Sufficiently qualified mark up personnel in the different authorities, ministries etc.?