Concepts of time within the law Nina Koch Ministry of Justice, Secretariat for Legal Information

The themes of today do we have any common concepts of time within our national systems of law the power of names how to manage time

Time and Versions Date-repealed, date-enacted, date-publication Date-version and “date-of-interest”! Date-ref on a reference If missing by default the current version (date-version)! Date-effective Semantics cannot be fixed in a standard which pretends to be jurisdiction-independent

Summary Dies consulti, dies signum Not versioning, not always there in lower regulations Dies edicti: date-publication Dies coactu: date-enacted (inwerkingtreding) Dies valens: date-effective (.. werking) Date of modification = dies coactu of modifying provision

Fixed dates – always on the document DescriptionLatinAbbr Date of approval of the bill in the Parliament/last chamber Dies ConsultiDC Date of signature by competent authority existence/delivery Dies SigniDS

Fixed dates – always on the document DescriptionLatinAbbr Date of publication in OJ or other official/man- datory publication carrying the legal consequences related to publication = promulgation in some/other countries Dies EdictiDE

Intervals/start dates of intervals – may be on the document, but is on the norms DescriptionLatinAbbr Date of efficacy/coming into force/enter into the legal system. Must be after dates of Consulti, Signum and Edicti (>DCon DS DE) The law can now be en- forced by the authorities Dies Coactu (Dies Imperii ?) DCoa (DI)

Intervals/start dates of intervals – may be on the document, but is on the norms DescriptionLatinAbbr Date of taking effect/applica- bility Should be the same date or a date after Dies Coactu, but is not always (≥ DC) Dies ValensDV

The impact/influence of other (later) documents DescriptionLatinAbbr Date of modification