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 Estonia

1. Legal Gazette

Riigi Teataja --- RT
State Gazette
Published by:
Ministry of Justice
Suur-Ameerika 1
10122 Tallinn
Estonia
Tel. +372 6208148
E-mail: ert@riigiteataja.ee
Website: http://www.riigiteataja.ee

Official journal / legal gazette There are separate official publications for primary/secondary legislation (Riigi Teataja) and for official notices and announcements (Ametlikud Teadaanded); see point 1.2 for details.
First edition 27th November 1918.
Publication was discontinued in August 1940. On 20th September 1944 a single issue of Riigi Teataja was published by the government led by Otto Tief. The publication of Riigi Teataja continued on 2nd July 1990.
First online edition The electronic version of Riigi Teataja — eRT was first published online in January 1997 (the electronic version was given official status from 1st June 2002).
Paper edition Riigi Teataja (RT)
The paper publication of Riigi Teataja was discontinued from 1st June 2010. The electronic version published online has official status.
Online edition http://www.riigiteataja.ee
Available texts
HTML from 1990, XML from November 2010
Access and price
Free of charge and publicly available
Legally binding
CD/DVD edition No CD/DVD edition

 1.2. Details on the legal gazette in general

Content
  • Excerpt from the Riigi Teataja Act

§ 2. Publication of original texts

(1) Legislation shall be published in the Riigi Teataja as official original texts in four parts.

(2) The following legislation shall be published in the first part of the Riigi Teataja titled “Legislation of General Application”:

1) an Act along with a reference to the resolution of the President of the Republic on proclaiming the Act;

2) a decision of a referendum;

3) a decree of the President of the Republic;

4) a draft act and a draft resolution submitted to a referendum;

5) a regulation of the Government of the Republic, a regulation of a minister and a decree of the Governor of Eesti Pank;

6) an administrative contract entered into by a ministry, the State Chancellery and other state authorities to regulate an unlimited number of cases;

7) a judgment of the Constitutional Review Chamber of the Supreme Court or the Supreme Court en banc, containing a decision on the constitutionality of legislation of general application published in the Riigi Teataja

 

(3) The following legislation shall be published in the second part of the Riigi Teataja titled “International Agreements and Other Legislation Concerning Foreign Relations”:

1) an Act on the entry into or termination of an international agreement along with a reference to the resolution of the President of the Republic on proclaiming the Act;

2) an international agreement made in Estonian or its translation into Estonian, if the text of the international agreement is available only in foreign languages, and in at least one foreign language serving as the basis for interpretation. An international agreement shall be published along with the Act discussing the entry into the international agreement or, if it has been published in the Official Journal of the European Union, a reference and a link to the international agreement or to the order of the Government of the Republic where it was decided to enter into the international agreement;

3) a notice of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs concerning the entry into force and expiry of an international agreement and, where necessary, other information concerning the international agreement;

4) an order of the Government of the Republic concerning foreign relations;

5) a resolution of the President of the Republic concerning appointment and removal of a diplomatic representative.

 

(4) The following legislation shall be published in the third part of the Riigi Teataja titled “Legislation of Specific Application by the Riigikogu, the President of the Republic and the Government of the Republic and Other Documents”:

 

1) a resolution, statement, declaration and address of the Riigikogu;

2) a resolution and directive of the President of the Republic, except a resolution on proclaiming an Act and on reviewing an appeal for pardon of a convicted offender;

3) an order of the Government of the Republic;

4) an order of the Prime Minister whose publication in the Riigi Teataja has been provided for in the Government of the Republic Act;

5) a directive of a minister whose publication in the Riigi Teataja has been provided by law;

51) a decision of the Commander of the Defence Forces or of a commander authorised by the Commander of the Defence Forces as well as that of the commander of an international organisation or foreign armed forces authorised by the Commander of the Defence Forces if the publication thereof in the Riigi Teataja is provided by law;

6) a resolution and report of the Governing Council of Eesti Pank on the activities of Eesti Pank;

7) a resolution of the Board of the Riigikogu concerning the assumption of office as a member of the Riigikogu by an alternate member of the Riigikogu and the termination of their authority, approval of the membership of a standing committee of the Riigikogu, and registration and approval of the membership of the factions of the Riigikogu;

8) a decision of the National Electoral Committee;

9) a notice of the National Electoral Committee concerning the postponement or cancellation of a referendum;

10) a notice concerning the assumption of office by the Government of the Republic or a minister;

11) an overview for the Riigikogu by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, the Auditor General and the Chancellor of Justice;

12) the budget, management report and audited annual accounts of the Estonian Health Insurance Fund;

13) a guideline of the Estonian Accounting Standards Board;

14) a notice of the Security Police Board published in the Riigi Teataja on the basis of the Procedure for Registration and Disclosure of Persons who Have Served in or Cooperated with Intelligence or Counter-intelligence Organisations of Security Organisations or Military Forces of States which Have Occupied Estonia Act;

15) [Repealed]

 

(5) Regulations of rural municipality and city councils and governments shall be published in the fourth part of the Riigi Teataja titled “Regulations of Local Authorities”, which may be denoted with the abbreviation “KO”.

 

(6) Legislation not specified in subsections 2 to 5 of this section may be published in the Riigi Teataja by a decision of the Riigikogu, the Government of the Republic or the publisher of the Riigi Teataja.

 

§ 3. Publication of consolidated texts

(1) The official consolidated texts of the following legislation made on the basis of the original text and containing any and all amendments shall be published in the Riigi Teataja along with the original text: 1) an Act;

2) a decree of the President of the Republic;

3) a regulation of the Government of the Republic, a regulation of a minister and a decree of the Governor of Eesti Pank;

4) a resolution of the Riigikogu;

5) an order of the Government of the Republic;

6) a regulation of a rural municipality and city council and government (hereinafter local authority).

 

(2) Upon publication, the publisher of the Riigi Teataja shall add the details of the term of validity to the consolidated text.

 

Legal basis The Riigi Teataja Act
https://www.riigiteataja.ee/en/eli/ee/502012019004/consolide/current
Legally binding The electronic edition is legally binding since June 2002 and validity is ensured through consolidated texts.
Financing The online Riigi Teataja is financed solely from the state budget.
Other gazettes Ametlikud Teadaanded (Official Announcements) is an official publication issued by the Ministry of Justice and published exclusively in electronic form on the Internet. It contains official notices and announcements that must be published according to corresponding Acts and regulations.

 1.3. Details on the online edition

http://www.riigiteataja.ee
See also points 1.1 and 3.2

Functionalities
  • Riigi Teataja incorporates all pertinent legislative information
  • Hyperlinks to other related acts
  • Currently no notification system is available for users; an internal notification system is used in the management module of the system.
  • Searching for drafts based on their procedural stages from all state information systems
  • Associations to other state databases and webpages in the consolidated text view
  • Validity data
  • English and Russian translations. English translations of all Estonian acts are kept up to date
  • A personalised MyRT solution that enables the user to subscribe to act, draft, and judicial information updates based on various parameters
  • Final decisions of all court instances are available only through Riigi Teataja
  • Decision summaries of judgments made by the Supreme Court of Estonia and the European Court of Human Rights
  • Various systematic and keyword classifications to find information faster
Format description HTML, XML, TXT, PDF
(PDF, JPG and GIF for images, maps and tables in annexes)
Authenticity
  • The paper and electronic versions were declared equally authentic in June 2002. The paper version was discontinued from 1st June 2010 and since then only the electronic version available online is authentic.
  • To guarantee the workflow and authentication procedures of the electronically published text the Thawte web server certificate based on the HTTPS protocol is used.
Archiving Archiving is done electronically and there are printouts of acts.

 1.4. Details on the publishing institution

Ministry of Justice
For contact details, please refer to point 1.1

Form and nature Ministry
Basic tasks
  • Pre-press: no
  • Printing: no
  • Dissemination/distribution: no
  • Legal gazette online: yes
  • Legislation database: yes
  • Consolidation: yes

 1.5. Drafting and publishing procedures

Text processing
systems
  • XML editors and a specifically designed XML-based redactor tool VexPro for compiling legislative texts.
Workflow Transmission is done only electronically. There is no single integrated electronic system for drafting, adopting and publishing.
Publishing
  • Consolidated texts are published simultaneously with the publishing of amending acts; other documents within 1-7 working days.

2. Collections of consolidated Legislation

eRT (electronic Riigi Teataja)
http://www.riigiteataja.ee
See point 3.2.1

Body carrying out
consolidation
Ministry of Justice
Content Consolidated legislation
Status of the
consolidated texts
Official and legally binding collection
Deadline for
consolidation
Amendments to the texts are made simultaneously with the publishing of the amending acts.

3. Legislative portals and online databases

For the time being, no official portal is available.

 3.2. Official databases

1. eRT (electronic Riigi Teataja)

http://www.riigiteataja.ee
See also point 1.3

Organisation
responsible
Ministry of Justice
Content The eRT contains the original version and the consolidated texts of the following legislation: acts; decrees of the President of the Republic; regulations and orders of the Government of the Republic; regulations of ministers; regulations of the President of the Bank of Estonia; regulations of the National Electoral Committee. In terms of electronic gazette, publication of consolidated legislation begun in 2002.
Access Free of charge and publicly available
Access via N-Lex (see Annex 2) N-Lex provides access to the eRT system: to the original version and their consolidated versions in the system.