Norsk Lovtidend
Norwegian Law Gazette
Published by: Justis- og beredskapsdepartementet Ministry of Justice and Public Security
(Ministry of Justice)
through Stiftelsen Lovdata
(Lovdata Foundation)
C. J. Hambros plass 2 C6688 St. Olavs plass — 0129 Oslo
Norway
Tel. +47 23118300
E-mail: ltavd1@lovdata.no
Website: http://www.lovdata.no
Official journal / legal gazette
In Norway the legal gazette is divided into two series: Series I contains national legislation and Series II contains local legislation;
see point 1.2 for details.
First edition
The Norsk Lovtidend was formally established by a statute in 1876, which entered into force on 1 January 1877. The first paper edition was thus published in 1877.
The references to the first electronic edition are: Norsk Lovtidend, avd I nr 1 2001.
First online edition
The online edition was created in 1987, but as a restricted information
system. Since 1995 it has been published on the Internet.
Series I: statutes and central regulations (applicable to the whole country); new legislation and amendments to existing legislation are classified according to their date of entry, not to their type (statute or regulation); new statutes and regulations are published in full text; only amendments to existing legislation are published in the legal gazette (not the consolidated versions).
Series II: regional and local regulations (applicable to certain counties and municipalities).
Legal basis
The Law Gazette Statute of 1969 (Lov om norsk lovtidend) and Chapter 7 of the Public Administration Statute of 1967 (Forvaltningsloven) form the legal base for publication of legislation in Norway. A Ministry of Justice circular (G-148/92) of 27 October 1992 explains the format of texts to be published and procedural issues.
Legally binding
Since 1 January 2001, the electronic edition has been the only legally binding version of the Norsk Lovtidend
Financing
Editing of the legal gazette is financed by the state budget.
Other gazettes
International treaties are not published in the series but in a Ministry of Foreign Affairs publication Overenskomster med fremmede stater (Conventions with foreign states). Tenders and public procurements are announced in Doffin (www.doffin.no) and bankrupties and compulsory liquidations in Brønnøysundregistrene (www.brreg.no).
Notification system available (in online version for professional)
Format description
HTML
PDF
XML
Authenticity
Authenticity of the legal gazette is ensured through electronic signature
Archiving
Lovdata is responsible for archiving on its own initiative, as there is no legal obligation to do so. The electronic editions of gazettes from 2001 are accessible free of charge, while subscription is required for previous issues (1987–2000 inclusive).
Justis- og politidepartementet
(Ministry of Justice)
Gullhaug Torg 4A, Oslo
Postboks 8005 Dep — 0030 Oslo
Norway
Tel. +47 22249090
E-mail: postmottak@jd.dep.no
Website: http://www.jd.dep.no
The publishing
body
Stiftelsen Lovdata
(The Lovdata Foundation) For contact details, please refer to point 1.1
Form and nature
of the publishing
body
Stifelsen Lovdata is a private foundation established on 1 July 1981 by the Ministry of Justice and the Faculty of Law at the University of Oslo. According to an agreement of 1992, publication of legislation is subcontracted to the Lovdata Foundation, but the Ministry of Justice remains formally responsible
Financing of the Lovdata Foundation:
The purpose of Lovdata is to establish and operate legal information systems, self-financed, on a non-profit basis. The income is from sale of services to private and public organizations
Basic tasks of the publishing body
Pre-press: yes
Printing: no
Dissemination/distribution: no
Legal gazette online: yes
Legislation database: yes
Consolidation: yes (by lovdata)
Other services offered by the publishing body
The foundation offers subscription to legal databases, e-mail notification concerning legislative modifications on one or more specific topics (in professional version), XML-service and RSS function
The relevant ministries are responsible for transferring the final text to house, and uploads the text to the Lovdata website.
Since 1981, all data in the Lovdata systems have been encoded in Lovdata’s own markup (BOKUS, which is similar to XML). This language was originally developed during 1979–81 and gives a complete description of the structure of the document. It can then be automatically converted to other markup or typesetting codes. The texts can be used for publishing or inclusion in the retrieval system.
No differentiated systems are used for primary and secondary (delegated) legislation.
Workflow
The competent ministry sends the final texts for publication to the Lovdata Foundation, by up loading it to Lovdata`s editorial site
Publishing
Lovdata is in charge of proofreading and editing the text.
Usually, the publishing organisation publishes the text in the electronic edition of the Norsk Lovtidend the same day it receives the draft, but this could be done also the following Tuesday or Friday (at the latest).
The online edition may be updated many times daily - on an Act by Act basis or at the latest on Tuesdays/Fridays.
Statutes and regulations are consolidated daily, at the latest in the days following the announcement of amendments. The text of the amending law is first published on the Norsk Lovdata, and then the original laws are immediately consolidated for changes that take immediate effect. In some cases, the consolidation might take until the next day, while in extreme cases it can be carried out over a weekend. However, very often the amending law itself indicates from which day the change will take effect. In those cases, the original law is consolidated from that date.
For the Norsk Lovtidend online, see point 1.3 Lovdata
(Lawdata) http://www.lovdata.no
Organisation
responsible
Lovdata Foundation
Content
Information accessible in the open database: statutes (Lover), parliamentary decisions (Stortingsvedtak), regulations (Forskrifter), all court decisions the Supreme Court and the appellate courts, some decisions from the District Courts. Court decisions are available for one year (Dommer), legal gazette (Lovtidend), treaties (Traktater), some decisions European Court of Human Rights (EMD), Collective agreements (Tariffavtaler), The State personnel manual (Statens Personalhåndbok), a list of licensed lawyers (Advokater) and English translated versjons of Acts, regulations and treaties
The subscription version offers access to court case rulings older than one year, preparatory work (draft committee recommendations and minutes), a number of conflict solving bodies, European Economic Area (EEA) legislation and judicial literature and a lot of functionality with hyperlinks between all legal sources. The system has changed from being a legal source system to a complete judicial studying and working tool.
Access
The Open site is Free of charge. The subscription system is priced from 9875,- NOK = 980,- EUR a year (2020)
