Finland
1. Legal Gazette
1.1. Overview
Suomen säädöskokoelma/Finlands författningssamling
Statutes of Finland
Published by:
Oikeusministeriö/Justitieministeriet
(Ministry of Justice)
Eteläesplanadi 10 — PO Box 25 — FI-00023 Government
Finland
Tel. +3582 9516001
Fax +358 916067730
E-mail: finlex.om@gov.fi
Websites: http://www.finlex.fi http://www.oikeusministerio.fi
| Official journal / legal gazette |
There are distinct official publications for primary/secondary legislation (Suomen säädöskokoelma/Finlands författningssamling) and for legal notices, ministerial circulars and other official texts (Virallinen lehti/Officiella tidningen); see point 1.2 for details. |
| First edition |
Publishing of statutes started in Finland in 1808, and since 1860 all statutes exist in Finnish and Swedish. The Treaty series was established in 1933.
Statutes concerning the interests of the Sami people have been published in Sami since 1991 (approximately 5 to 10 acts or decrees annually). |
| First online edition |
1997 |
| Paper edition |
No paper edition |
| Online edition |
http://www.finlex.fi
Available texts
HTML from 1734 (original texts of acts and decrees)
PDF from 1995 (electronic Statutes of Finland)
Access and price
Free of charge
Legally binding
(1 January 2010) |
| CD/DVD edition |
No CD/DVD edition |
1.2. Details on the legal gazette in general
| Content |
Part I: Suomen säädöskokoelma/Finlands författningssamling (Statutes of Finland, national legislation):
- Acts of parliament;
- Decrees of the President of the Republic, of the government and of the ministries;
- The state budget, supplementary budgets and parliamentary decisions on state finances;
- Rules of procedure of the parliament and other rules and instructions related to the organisation of parliamentary work or for the bodies elected by the parliament.
Part II: Suomen säädöskokoelman sopimussarja/Finlands författningssamling fördragsserie (Treaty series):
- International treaties, both bilateral and multilateral; the reservations, explanations and notices that Finland has made in respect of treaties;
- Decisions to terminate a treaty or to interrupt the application or implementation of a treaty;
- In the context of treaties, also their implementing acts and decrees.
|
| Legal basis |
The legal basis for publication is the Finnish Constitution, Section 79 (11.6.1999/731) and Act 188 of 25 February 2000 (25.2.2000/188) — ‘Act on the Statutes of Finland’. |
| Legally binding |
The online edition as of 1 January 2010 |
| Financing |
Publication of the legal gazette is financed through the state budget. |
| Other gazettes |
Apart from the Suomen säädöskokoelma/Finlands författningssamling (legal gazette), there is one main official gazette: Virallinen lehti/Officiella tidningen, published by Edita Ltd (https://www.virallinenlehti.fi/fi/journal/list).
The official gazette contains all kinds of official notices and other legal announcements based on laws (around 50): public executory sales, mergers, degradations of capital stock, temporary suspensions of payments and collections, guardianships and announcements. Existing since 1819, it is currently published twice per week. |
1.3. Details on the online edition
http://www.finlex.fi
See also point 1.1
| Functionalities |
- Download option of complete PDF files
- Several search functions in the database with HTML files
- Hyperlinks to other related acts, government bills and EU legislation
|
| Format description |
- PDF
- HTML
- XHTML
- RDF (in the separate open data service data.finlex.fi )
|
| Authenticity |
The authenticity of the texts online is protected with a secure https server. |
| Archiving |
The online publisher, Edita Ltd, is in charge of archiving. A law on electronic archiving is in progress, but there is already an order (secondary legislation) on the standards of electronic archiving. |
1.4. Details on the publishing institution
Oikeusministeriö/Justitieministeriet
(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
NB: A private company (Edita Publishing Ltd) owned by the Ministry of Finance is the contractor responsible for pre-press, the legal gazette online and dissemination/distribution. |
| Other services offered |
|
1.5. Drafting and publishing procedures
Text processing
systems |
- For the electronic legislative procedure a special workflow and document processing system (government decisionmaking system) is used
- The same system applies for primary and secondary legislation
- Microsoft Word templates containing tailor-made macros and templates are used. These templates are converted to XML further to FrameMaker. These formats are then converted into HTML and PDF for online publishing
|
| Workflow |
Government decisionmaking system is used, from drafting to publishing, as a single electronic workflow system (see above). |
| Publishing |
- Staff of the ministries and the contractor proofread texts to be published
- The minimum period between the reception of the draft by publisher Edita Ltd and the availability of the published text is between 3 to 5 days
|
2. Collections of consolidated Legislation
See full details >>
Ajantasainen lainsäädäntö/Uppdaterad lagstiftning
(Consolidated legislation)
http://www.finlex.fi
For details, see point 3.2, no. 1
Body carrying out
consolidation |
Oikeusministeriö/Justitieministeriet |
| Content |
Primary and secondary legislation |
Status of the
consolidated texts |
Consolidation is for information purposes only |
Deadline for
consolidation |
Weekly updates |
3. Legislative portals and online databases
3.1. Official portals
Finlex (http//:www.finlex.fi) also serves as an official portal of the Finnish government; for details see point 3.2.
Semantic Finlex (https://data.finlex.fi) is the open data portal of legislation and case law operated by the Ministry of Justice
3.2. Official databases
For the Suomen säädöskokoelma/Finlands författningssamling online, see point 1.3
1. Finlex
http://www.finlex.fi
Organisation
responsible |
Oikeusministeriö/Justitieministeriet |
| Content |
Online databases in Finnish and Swedish:
- Primary and secondary legislation (original acts and consolidated versions)
- English translation of some primary and secondary legislation
- Acts in Sami language
- Index of all amendments
- International treaties
and also:
- Government bills
- Collective agreements
- Case law of Supreme Courts, Courts of Appeal, Administrative Courts and special courts
- Summaries of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights
|
| Access |
Free of charge |
| Access via N-Lex (see Annex 2) |
Yes (access to the consolidated and the original versions of the acts) |
2. Eduskunta/Riksdagen
(Parliament of Finland)
http://www.eduskunta.fi
Organisation
responsible |
Eduskunta/Riksdagen |
| Content |
Parliamentary documents, parliamentary proceedings, government bills |
| Access |
Free of charge |
3.3. Additional information: other commonly used legal databases
The following hosts disseminate an online edition of EUR-Lex under licence from the Publications Office:
