ELECTRONIC RIIGI TEATAJA – ERT
- OFFICIAL
- CURRENT LEGISLATION AS ON ANY GIVEN DATE
- USER FRIENDLY AND FREE OF CHARGE
OFFICIAL
The
Riigi Teataja (State Gazette) is an official publication of the Republic of
Estonia, the first issue of which was published on November 27, 1918. Riigi
Teataja is published by the State
Chancellery.
As of 1996 the acts printed in
Riigi Teataja were made available in an electronic format on the internet. Since
June 1, 2002, Riigi Teataja is published both in the traditional paper format
and electronically on the Internet. The electronic issue is published
simultaneously with the printed issue.
The
texts published in the printed and electronic formats of Riigi Teataja currently
have equal legal force.
As of January 1, 2007,
the eRT will become the primary official publication, with only five copies
printed on paper. Since the creation of the eRT the number of subscriptions of
the printed version of Riigi Teataja has decreased by an average of 20% per
annum, while the number of sessions the eRT has been accessed has increased 2 to
3 times.
The legislative acts and other
documents are transferred electronically for publication in Riigi Teataja by the
issuer of the act using an extranet module. Extranet can be accessed only after
user is properly authorized. Such method of delivery of documents is considered
official.
The access rights of the respondent
are determined by a written agreement. The respondent can follow the handling of
the document submitted by them until the publication of that document in Riigi
Teataja.
In August 2005, the eRT database contained
a total of 69,768 documents, of which 15,177 were different drafts of
consolidated texts and 54,941 were original texts. Between 3000 and 4000 texts
of acts are added to the database yearly. It can be said that, with a few
exceptions, all legislative acts enforced by the Republic of Estonia are
available as official texts in the eRT.
The eRT
also serves as the medium in which regulations issued by local governments are
published. These regulations are not published in the printed version of Riigi
Teataja. Thus the state provides local governments an act publication
service.
CURRENT LEGISLATION AS AT ANY
DATE
The most significant difference and
advantage of the eRT, when compared to the printed Riigi Teataja, is its
publication of consolidated texts of legislative acts. The consolidated text is
a legislative act which reflects all the changes that have been made to it. The
consolidated texts are drafted on the basis of the original texts published in
Riigi Teataja. The first original text is always also the first consolidated
text (original/consolidated text).
The
consolidated texts of the following legislative acts are published in
eRT:
Laws (drafted by the Ministry of
Justice);
Decrees of the President of the Republic
(drafted by the Ministry of Justice);
Regulations
and orders of the Government of the Republic (drafted by the State
Chancellery);
Regulations of ministers (drafted by
the corresponding ministries);
Regulations of the
Governor of the Bank of Estonia (drafted by the Bank of
Estonia);
Regulations of the National Electoral
Committee (drafted by the Chancellery of the
Riigikogu).
The original texts are published
simultaneously in the printed and electronic formats. Each time when a
legislative act is changed, a new consolidated text is drafted and published
along with the information pertaining to the draft’s term of validity. The
consolidated text is published electronically simultaneously with the amendment
being printed or coming into force.
The
consolidated texts can be viewed as at any date, meaning that one can locate any
former or current drafts of legislative acts since the launch of the electronic
Riigi Teataja, and also access the potential future drafts of the acts. Every
draft of a consolidated text is linked to its preceding and subsequent drafts.
This allows users to “move in time” from the previous draft of the
consolidated text to the next and vice
versa.
As a result, the user does not have to
ascertain the validity of a legislative act or locate its current draft by
searching for the relevant amendments.
USER
FRIENDLY AND FREE OF CHARGE
The process of
searching for legislative acts in the eRT environment is easy and offers lots of
possibilities. The users can choose between different search methods according
to their needs. It is possible to locate the required act by using only one
search field. Users can perform a full text
search.
The “Search”-section
has been divided into two:
* Search from consolidated texts (as of June 1, 2002,
original/consolidated texts also searchable)
* Search from original texts (all original texts and
original/consolidated texts published in Riigi Teataja)
The search for consolidated texts can be conducted
through the following search fields:
- Heading – searchable by word or part of a
word
- Text – searchable by word or part of a word
- Issuer and type of the act – it is possible to
perform a simultaneous search from among the acts of three different
issuers
- Number – it is possible to choose a number
interval
- The draft’s term of validity – the default
choice is always the date on which the search is performed, although only a year
or a year and a month can be specified instead of an exact date
- The date of the draft’s coming into force or end of
validity
- Future drafts
- Consolidated texts published today – the drafts of
consolidated texts published in the eRT on the date on which the search is
performed
The search for original
texts can be conducted through the following additional
specifiers:
- General date of commencement – a date of
commencement is marked on all published acts and documents, only a year or a
year and a month can be specified instead of an exact date; it is also possible
to choose an interval of time
- Date of the act – only a year or a year and a month
can be specified instead of an exact date; it is also possible to choose an
interval of time
- Date of publication – only a year or a year and a
month can be specified instead of an exact date; it is also possible to choose
an interval of time
- Number of the Riigi Teataja volume, issue and/or number
of the Riigi Teataja article.
The “Chronology”-section allows users to search for acts
in a chronological directory. It is possible to use this directory to locate
acts published in Riigi Teataja according to years, volumes and issues of
Riigi Teataja. This section contains acts from as early as 1996.
The newest acts and other documents published in Riigi Teataja can be located
though the „Future and Current Issues“-section. The table
of contents of the next issue of Riigi Teataja is published in this section,
along with the most recent issues of Riigi Teataja and their tables of content
and texts of the acts.
Despite the fact that all of the acts can be located by conducting a full
text search using words or parts of words occurring in either headings or
texts, a sections named “Keyword Vocabulary” has been created,
which allows acts to be located through pre-established keywords.
A „Systematic Directory“-section will soon be added to
the system in order to further improve its search facilities. This section
will enable the user to find the acts they are interested in by searching
the different branches and domains of law, and keywords. Also, links to the
drafts of implementing regulations will be added to the valid drafts of consolidated
texts of legislative acts. These links would be dynamic, i.e. the user would
always be transported to the valid draft of the consolidated text by default.
The section “Introduction to eRT” provides the user the
general information concerning the electronic Riigi Teataja and the section
“Help” contains information relevant to the practical use
of the eRT system.
The publisher of Riigi Teataja will assist the user in using the eRT system
and locating the acts through e-mail and a helpline service for user support.
The fist type of assistance is available in the section “Feedback”
which allows the user to present their opinion, question or message concerning
an error through e-mail ( ert@riigikantselei.ee ) without leaving the eRT site.
The questions or error messages received by e-mail will generally be answered
within one working day. In addition to this, a helpline service is
available on weekdays from 9 am to 4.30 pm, which serves to help users locate
the acts they need.
One of the preconditions of understanding legislation is the legislation’s
availability, which is why the eRT internet database can be used free of charge.
Everyone has a legal right to use eRT free of charge at almost 600 public
libraries and almost 240 local government offices. The librarians and local
government officials have completed a training course on using the eRT and
are obligated by law to provide persons with instructions and help them in
finding the necessary acts.
The eRT software was created in 2002 by AS Webmedia and is developed by AS
Datel. Database engine is Oracle, web application is Java-based. The texts
in eRT are published in HTML-format, with some appendices in PDF-format.
