Estonia

• 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.

• 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

• 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.

• Pre-press: no
• Printing: no
• Dissemination/distribution: no
• Legal gazette online: yes
• Legislation database: yes
• Consolidation: yes

• XML editors and a specifically designed XML-based redactor tool VexPro for compiling legislative texts.

• Consolidated texts are published simultaneously with the publishing of amending acts; other documents within 1-7 working days.