Stjórnartíðindi
The Government Gazette
Published by: Dómsmálaráðuneyti
(Ministry of Justice and Ecclesiastical Affairs)
Skuggasund 3 — IS-150 Reykjavik
Iceland
Tel. +35 45459000
E-mail: stjornartidindi@dkm.stjr.is
Website: http://www.domsmalaraduneyti.is
Official journal / legal gazette
There are distinct official publications for primary/secondary legislation and for legal notices, ministerial circulars and other official texts; see point 1.2 for details.
First edition
1874
First online edition
2001
Paper edition
Stjórnartíðindi Price
ISK 280 000
(EUR 2 500)
Online edition
http://www.stjornartidindi.is Available texts
Section A: PDF since 2001
Section B: PDF since 2001 (and some in HTML)
Section C: PDF since 1995 Access and price
Free Legally binding
Since 8 November 2005
The Stjórnartíðindi is divided in the following sections:
Section A: acts of the Althingi (Icelandic parliament)
Section B: regulations and other administrative rules and announcements (secondary legislation) issued by the ministers, announcements from public agencies and municipalities
Section C: international treaties, including bilateral agreements
Legal basis
The Stjórnartíðindi is issued under Regulation No 958/2005 on the ‘Publishing of the Government Gazette’ (Reglugerð um útgáfa Stjórnartíðinda) of 8 November 2005. It is based on the ‘Act on the Government Gazette and legal notices’ No 15/2005 (lög um Stjórnartíðindi og Lögbirtingarblað). The Act of 2005 superseded an earlier 1943 act on the same issue, which replaced an 1877 regulation on publishing the Gazette.
Legally binding
Electronic edition
Financing
The publication is financed by payments made by the governmental agencies that publish acts or regulations in the Gazette, with a pricing scheme laid down in Regulation No 958/2005, currently No 1276/2007; Section A is financed by payment order by an annual act on official financing, now No 177/2008.
Other gazettes
Apart from Stjórnartíðindi, there is also Lögbirtingablað, the ‘official gazette’ containing official notices and other legal announcements (i.e. advertisements of vacancies of the highest offices in the country, notices of issuance of licences, opening of bankruptcy procedures, etc.).
There is no special text processing system. Section A publication of the Stjórnartíðindi is based on PDF files received from the parliament, which also prepares an HTML version for publication. As for Sections B and C, the Ministry of Justice and Ecclesiastical Affairs receives a Word version from the ministry concerned. The publishing body is preparing a webaccess tool to be used by relevant ministries, subject to proofreading and review by the publishing body itself.
Workflow
There is no single integrated electronic workflow system for drafting, adopting and publishing legislation. Transmission is carried out electronically.
Publishing
The Ministry of Justice and Ecclesiastical Affairs is in charge of proofreading and editing.
A minimum period of 10 days is required between reception ofthe signed document and the availability of the published text. Exceptionally, publication can take place within 10 days, or even on the same day, upon request. The use of this workflow is charged with an extra 80 %.
The paper and electronic editions are derived from the same final text file.
The paper and electronic editions will be published concurrently butthe paper edition is now six months behind (spring 2009).
Lagasafn Althingis
(The Parliament Law Collection)
A collection of consolidated acts from the parliament (Althing) http://www.althingi.is/vefur/lagasafn.html For details, see point 3.2
Body carrying out
consolidation
Parliament office
Content
All legislation passed by the parliament with links to relevant regulations
Status of the
consolidated texts
Official collection
Deadline for
consolidation
Consolidation is usually available six months after the changes made to legislation.
