Concepts of time within the law

1. Concepts of time within the law Nina Koch nko@retsinfo.dk Ministry of Justice, Secretariat for Legal Information

2. The themes of today • do we have any common concepts of time within our national systems of law • the power of names • how to manage time

3. Time and Versions • Date-repealed, date-enacted, date-publication • Date-version and “date-of-interest”! • Date-ref on a reference • If missing by default the current version (date-version)! • Date-effective • Semantics cannot be fixed in a standard which pretends to be jurisdiction-independent

4. Summary • Dies consulti, dies signum • Not versioning, not always there in lower regulations • Dies edicti: date-publication • Dies coactu: date-enacted (inwerkingtreding) • Dies valens: date-effective (.. werking) • Date of modification = dies coactu of modifying provision

5. Fixed dates – always on the document

6. Fixed dates – always on the document

7. Intervals/start dates of intervals – may be on the document, but is on the norms

8. Intervals/start dates of intervals – may be on the document, but is on the norms

9. The impact/influence of other (later) documents