Consolidated version valid as of 1 April 2015
REPUBLIC OF LITHUANIA
LAW ON LEGISLATIVE FRAMEWORK
18 September 2012 No XI-2220
(As last amended on 11 December 2014 No XII-1411)
Vilnius
CHAPTER ONE
GENERAL PROVISIONS
Article 1. Purpose of the Law
1. This Law shall establish the principles and stages of legislation and the rights and duties of state and municipal institutions and bodies and other parties involved in legislation.
2. This Law shall not apply to international treaties of the Republic of Lithuania, except for the registration and publication of these treaties.
3. This Law shall not apply to legal acts having individual application, except for provisions on the registration, publication and entry into force of the legal acts.
4. This Law shall not apply where citizens exercise the right to initiate legislation embedded in the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania (hereinafter: the ‘Constitution’), the right to petition and the right to submit proposals to the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania (hereinafter: the ‘Seimas’) to amend or supplement the Constitution. A draft law or another legal act proposed for referendum must comply with the form, structure, content and language requirements specified in this Law.
5. Draft legal acts containing information comprising a state or official secret shall be drawn up, coordinated, adopted, registered and published and they shall enter into force in accordance with the procedure laid down by the entities adopting them.
Article 2. Definitions
1. Body means an agency maintained from the state or municipal budget or the state budgetary fund which has the powers to draw up draft legal acts as laid down in legal acts, as well as the Bank of Lithuania.
2. Public consultation means the actions of entities submitting legislative initiatives, drawing up draft legal acts, adopting legal acts and/or monitoring legal regulation which involve the provision of public access to the legislative initiatives and the draft legal acts, informing about the monitoring of the legal regulation carried out, as well as the assessment of proposals received from persons and publication of the assessment results. The start of the consultation shall be announced to the public.
3. Assessment of the effect of envisaged legal regulation means establishing the positive and negative consequences of the envisaged legal regulation.
4. Consolidated version of a legal act means the text of a legal act in force at a specific time in the past or currently or adopted, signed and published by an entity concerned but still not in force, which has been drawn up on the basis of the official text of the original legal act and the official texts of the legal acts amending or supplementing that legal act and which includes all the changes in the legal regulation provided for in that legal act.
5. Legislation means a process covering the submission of legislative initiatives, drawing up of draft legal acts and adoption, signing and publication of legal acts.
6. Legislative initiative means a proposal to set new or amend the existing legal regulation, specifying the objectives of setting or amending the legal regulation and the main provisions thereof.
7. Accompanying documents of a draft legal act means documents provided for in this Law or other legal acts the drawing up of which is obligatory and the submission of which, together with the draft legal act, is obligatory for the entity adopting the legal act, as well as other documents relating to the draft legal act.
8. Register of Legal Acts means the primary state register wherein the objects of the register specified in this Law are registered, the data of the register are collected, accumulated, processed, systemised, stored and provided in accordance with the procedure laid down in legal acts and other data processing operations are performed as specified in legal acts.
9. Monitoring of legal regulation means a system of measures encompassing the assessment of the need for, sufficiency and effectiveness of legal regulation, the actual consequences of legal regulation and their conformity when establishing legal regulation for planned objectives and consequences, the effect of legal regulation on public relationships and its effectiveness, as well as of the need for the change in legal regulation.
Article 3. Principles of legislation
1. The principles of legislation shall embody certain mandatory requirements for entities involved in legislation with a view to creating a uniform, consistent, coherent and effective legal system.
2. Legislation shall be guided by the following principles:
1) expediency, meaning that a draft legal act must be drawn up and the legal act adopted only where the objectives pursued cannot be achieved by other means;
2) proportionality, meaning that the selected measures of legal regulation must keep the administrative and other burden to a minimum and not restrict the entities of legal relationships more than required to achieve the objectives of legal regulation;
3) respect for an individual’s rights and freedoms, meaning that legal provisions must ensure and may not exclude an individual’s rights and freedoms and legitimate interests laid down in the Constitution, legal acts of the European Union, international treaties of the Republic of Lithuania, laws and other legal acts of the Republic of Lithuania;
4) openness and transparency, meaning that legislation must be accessible to the public, legislative decisions linked to general interest may not be adopted without the public being aware of them and without having an opportunity to get involved; public policy objectives, the need for legal regulation and the entities involved in legislation must be known, the public and interest groups must be allowed to submit proposals relating to legal regulation at all the stages of legislation; also the entities that initiated the drawing up of draft legal acts, the entities that have drawn up the draft legal acts, the entities that have carried out the assessment of the effect of envisaged legal regulation and the entities carrying out the monitoring of legal regulation must be known;
5) effectiveness, meaning that when drawing up a draft legal act, all the possible alternatives of legal regulation must be assessed and the best one chosen, the legal act must provide for the measures allowing for the most effective and economical achievement of legal regulation, proposals received relating to legal regulation must be published and assessed, and legislative actions must be carried out within reasonable time limits;
6) clarity, meaning that legal regulation provided for in legal acts must be logical, consistent, concise, comprehensive, accurate, clear and unambiguous;
7) systematicity, meaning that legal provisions must be consistent with each other, legal acts of lower legal validity may not contradict legal acts of higher legal validity, the implementing legal acts of a law must be drawn up and adopted so that they enter into force together with the law or separate provisions thereof which are implemented by these legal acts.
Article 4. Stages of legislation
1. The stages of legislation shall be as follows:
1) submission of a legislative initiative;
2) drawing up of a draft legal act;
3) adoption of a legal act;
4) signing and publication of the legal act.
2. Point 1 of paragraph 1 of this Article shall not apply to the President of the Republic, Members of the Seimas and members of municipal councils.
Article 5. Use of the Legislative Information System for legislation
1. The Legislative Information System of the Office of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania (hereinafter: the ‘Legislative Information System’) shall be used to ensure the openness, transparency and concentration of legislation.
2. The following shall be processed and published in the Legislative Information System:
1) legislative initiatives;
2) draft legal acts;
3) accompanying documents of draft legal acts (a comparative version of the draft legal act, the explanatory note, the conclusion of the assessment of the effect of envisaged legal regulation where the results of such assessment are not indicated in the explanatory note, the conclusions of a study carried out necessary for the drawing up of the draft legal act and of other studies on the basis whereof the draft legal act was drawn up, other documents specified in the legal acts the drawing up and submission of which together with the draft legal act to the entity adopting the legal act is obligatory);
4) information on public consultation, including the time, manner and results of the consultation;
5) information relating to the monitoring of legal regulation;
6) concepts of envisaged legal regulation;
7) other documents of bodies or other entities relating to draft legal acts, whereby the draft legal acts are submitted to obtain conclusions, whereby conclusions relating to the draft legal acts are submitted, whereby comments and proposals relating to the draft legal acts are assessed or whereby the results of the meetings intended to resolve disagreements relating to the draft legal act and the submitted comments and proposals are recorded, as well as documents and information of bodies or other entities relating to legislation the publication whereof in the Legislative Information System is laid down by legal acts.
3. Where the original drafter of a draft legal act is a lobbyist, that shall be published in the Legislative Information System. Where the lobbyist is a legal person, the name and registered office of the legal person and the name and surname of its employee carrying out lobbying activities shall be specified; where the lobbyist is a natural person, his name and surname shall be specified, as well as the name and surname (in case of a natural person) or the name and registered office (in case of a legal person) of the client of the lobbying activities in whose interest the lobbyist has drawn up a draft legal act and influences the drawing up of the draft legal act.
4. The Legislative Information System shall allow all persons to publish proposals relating to legislative initiatives and draft legal acts published in this system, as well as relating to legal regulation the monitoring whereof is carried out.
5. The data specified in this Law and processed in the Legislative Information System shall be public.
6. The processing of data of the Legislative Information System specified in this Law shall be regulated by the Law of the Republic of Lithuania on Management of State Information Resources (hereinafter: the ‘Law on Management of State Information Resources’), this Law and legal acts adopted by the manager of the Legislative Information System. The procedure for using the Legislative Information System for legislation shall be established by the Minister of Justice upon coordination with the manager of the Legislative Information System, the Bank of Lithuania and the Association of Local Authorities in Lithuania.
7. The Legislative Information System shall also be used for legislation purposes by state or municipal enterprises authorised to perform public administration, public bodies whose owner or stakeholder is the State or a municipality and associations.
Article 6. Register of Legal Acts
1. The Register of Legal Acts shall be intended for the registration, publication, accounting and systemisation of objects of the Register of Legal Acts specified in paragraph 2 of this Article and provision of information.
2. The objects of the Register of Legal Acts shall be as follows:
1) the Constitution;
2) constitutional laws;
3) other laws;
4) the Statute of the Seimas;
5) resolutions of the Seimas;
6) other legal acts adopted by the Seimas;
7) international treaties of the Republic of Lithuania, except for international treaties where the European Union and the Republic of Lithuania as a Member State of the European Union are one one party to an international treaty which are published in the Lithuanian language in the Official Journal of the European Union and announcements delivered by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Lithuania relating to the entry into force, validity, amendment, provisional application, suspension, termination, objection to an amendment or to clauses of all international treaties of the Republic of Lithuania;
8) decrees and ordinances of the President of the Republic;
9) resolutions and decisions of the Government;
10) the Rules of the Constitutional Court;
11) regulatory acts of ministers, heads of Government bodies and other state institutions and bodies and collegial institutions;
12) ordinances of the Prime Minister;
13) ordinances of the Speaker of the Seimas;
14) decisions of the Board of the Seimas;
15) regulatory acts of the Bank of Lithuania;
16) regulatory acts of municipal institutions, as well as legal acts adopted by municipal mayors the publication whereof in the Register of Legal Acts is mandatory under legal acts;
17) regulatory acts adopted by the management bodies of associations, state or municipal enterprises and public bodies authorised to perform public administration, whose owner or stakeholder is the State or a municipality. Legal acts adopted by the management bodies of other associations, state or municipal enterprises and public bodies whose owner or stakeholder is the State or a municipality shall be the objects of the Register of Legal Acts only in the cases where the publication of these legal acts is mandatory under legal acts;
18) legal acts having individual application adopted by ministers, heads of Government bodies and other state and municipal institutions and bodies and collegial institutions, as well as by the Board of the Bank of Lithuania or the Chairman of the Board and the management bodies of associations, state or municipal enterprises and public bodies authorised to perform public administration in accordance with the procedure laid down by legal acts, whose owner or stakeholder is the State or a municipality, the publication whereof in the Register of Legal Acts is mandatory under legal acts;
19) rulings and decisions of the Constitutional Court regarding the interpretation of a ruling of the Constitutional Court, as well as announcements of the President of the Constitutional Court regarding the suspension of validity of a contested act and renewal of validity of the suspended act;
20) decisions, judgments and rulings of the Supreme Court of Lithuania and the Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania, as well as effective decisions of administrative courts regarding the legitimacy of regulatory administrative acts.
3. The following data of the objects of the Register of Legal Acts shall be processed in the Register of Legal Acts:
1) the identification code;
2) the name of the entity that has adopted the legal act;
3) the type of the legal act;
4) the title of the legal act;
5) the number assigned by the entity that has adopted the legal act;
6) the chronological order (the date of adoption, publication, entry into force, amendment or supplementation, repealing and suspension of validity of the legal act and the period of its validity);
7) the text of the legal act;
8) consolidated versions of the legal act.
4. The data of the Register of Legal Acts shall be available free of charge. In cases where the data of the Register of Legal Acts are provided in accordance with the procedure laid down by laws and other legal acts of the Republic of Lithuania to persons entitled to receive the data with the purpose of providing services to third parties, or where persons request data the preparation and submission of which requires additional costs, the administrator of the Register of Legal Acts shall set the amount of a fee for these services, taking into consideration the amount of data provided and information technology solutions used. The amount of the fee for the services provided shall be made publicly available on the website of the administrator of the Register of Legal Acts.
5. The manager and administrator of the Register of Legal Acts shall be the Office of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania.
6. The data of the Register of Legal Acts shall be processed in compliance with this Law, the Law on Management of State Information Resources, other laws, the regulations of the Register of Legal Acts approved by a resolution of the Seimas and other legal acts. Other laws shall apply to the processing of the data of the Register of Legal Acts to the extent that is not covered by this Law.
7. A consolidated version of a legal act (in cases where different dates of entry into force of certain provisions of the amended legal act are provided for in a single legal act, several respective consolidated versions of the legal act) shall be published in the Register of Legal Acts not later than within three working days after the publication of the legal act amending or supplementing this legal act. The administrator of the Register of Legal Acts shall be responsible for proper preparation and publication of the consolidated version of the legal act.
8. The Register of Legal Acts must include references to drafts published in the Legislative Information System and amending or repealing a legal act.
Article 7. Public consultation
1. The purpose of public consultation shall be to ensure openness and transparency in legislation, to get feedback from the public on the issues of legal regulation and their solutions, to allow the public to influence the content of a draft legal act and to better assess the positive and negative consequences of the envisaged legal regulation and the costs of its implementation, to submit proposals relating to the legislative initiatives and draft legal acts published in the Legislative Information System, as well as to the monitoring of legal regulation carried out.
2. The public must be consulted in due time and on essential issues (effectiveness of consultation), also to the extent necessary (proportionality of consultation).
3. Methods of public consultation and ways of recording the results shall be selected by the entities initiating public consultation. Information on the results of public consultation must be provided to the entity adopting a legal act.
CHAPTER TWO
SUBMISSION OF LEGISLATIVE INITIATIVES AND DRAWING UP OF DRAFT LEGAL ACTS
Article 8. Legislative initiatives
1. The bodies provided for in Article 2(1) of this Law shall plan and submit legislative initiatives via strategic planning documents drawn up in accordance with the procedure laid down by legal acts and shall publish them in the Legislative Information System, indicating the main principles of and motives for the suggested new legal regulation or amending the existing legal regulation, a preliminary title of a draft legal act, the objectives and purpose of the drawing up of the draft legal act, and may also indicate the time limits for the start and end of the drawing up of the draft legal act and the drafter.
2. Taking into account the proposals by the public or individual persons and in response to a change in legal, economic, social, financial or other important circumstances, the bodies provided for in Article 2(1) of this Law may draw up legislative initiatives which are not provided for in strategic planning documents and publish them in accordance with the procedure laid down in paragraph 1 of this Article in the Legislative Information System.
3. The bodies provided for in Article 2(1) of this Law must ensure that updated information on the legislative initiatives planned to be implemented is published in the Legislative Information System.
Article 9. General provisions for the drawing up of draft legal acts
1. An entity drawing up a draft legal act shall draw up the draft legal act in compliance with the principles of legislation referred to in Article 3 of this Law and the draft legal act’s form, structure, content and language requirements specified in this Law.
2. When drawing up a draft legal act whereby Lithuanian national law is harmonised with European Union law or international law, all the possible alternatives must be considered and a solution in the best interest of Lithuania must be selected from them.
3. Implementing legal acts must provide for the measures which are most in line with the objectives of the implemented laws and are the most economical and effective.
4. Conclusions on the conformity of draft legal acts with European Union law, judgments of the Court of Justice of the European Union, international treaties of the Republic of Lithuania, the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and rulings of the European Court of Human Rights shall be provided by institutions authorised by the Government. These conclusions of the institutions authorised by the Government shall also be provided to the entity adopting a legal act.
5. All persons shall be entitled to submit proposals relating to a draft legal act published in the Legislative Information System. The proposals received which have not been submitted via the Legislative Information System must also be transferred and published in the Legislative Information System by the entities drawing up draft legal acts. The entity drawing up the draft legal act shall assess all the proposals submitted.
Article 10. Working groups/commission for the drawing up of draft legal acts
1. A working group/commission may be set up for the drawing up of a draft legal act. Representatives of state and municipal institutions and bodies, non-governmental organisations and higher education and research institutions, professionals from the respective fields and other persons may be members of a working group/commission. A lobbyist may not be a member of the working group/commission.
2. A working group/commission all or some of whose members would be remunerated for work in the working group/commission may only be set up in cases where specific and/or scientific knowledge, a detailed analysis of the existing situation and/or analysis of foreign practices are necessary for the drawing up of a draft legal act and the entity initiating the drawing up of the draft legal act lacks the knowledge and/or competences and/or cannot carry out the required analysis.
3. Information on working groups/commissions set up for the drawing up of draft legal acts, their composition and the draft legal act assigned to be drawn up shall be published in the Legislative Information System and on the website of the entity that has set up the working group/commission.
4. The composition and period of activity of a working group/commission for the drawing up of a draft legal act must be specified in the accompanying documents of the draft legal act.
5. The procedure for remuneration for work in working groups/commissions for the drawing up of draft legal acts set up by the Seimas, structural divisions of the Seimas or Seimas officials shall be established by an institution specified in the the Statute of the Seimas.
6. The procedure for remuneration for work in working group/commissions for the drawing up of draft legal acts set up by the President of the Republic, the Government, the Prime Minister or bodies maintained from the state budget or the state budgetary funds shall be established by the Government.
7. The procedure for remuneration for work in working groups/commissions for the drawing up of draft legal acts set up by municipal councils, municipal mayors/their deputies, directors of municipal administrations and heads of other bodies maintained from municipal budgets shall be established by municipal councils.
8. The procedure for remuneration for work in working groups/commissions for the drawing up of draft legal acts set up by the Board of the Bank of Lithuania or the Chairman of the Board shall be established by the Board of the Bank of Lithuania.
Article 11. Procurement of the drawing up of a draft legal act or a study necessary for the drawing up of the draft legal act
1. If specific and/or scientific knowledge and/or competences, a detailed analysis of the existing situation and/or an analysis of foreign practices are necessary for the drawing up of a draft legal act, the services of drawing up of the draft legal act or a study necessary for the drawing up of the draft legal act may be procured only in the cases where the drawing up of the draft legal act and/or the study necessary cannot be carried out by the entity drawing up the draft legal act or a working group/commission set up by it, or it is not possible to set up the working group/commission for the drawing up of the draft legal act for objective reasons.
2. Information on the procurement of the drawing up of a draft legal act or a study necessary for the drawing up of the draft legal act, the entities that have drawn up the draft legal act or carried out the study, as well as the results and/or the price of the drawing up of the draft legal act and/or the study must be published in the Legislative Information System and on the website of the entity drawing up the draft legal act.
3. The accompanying documents of a draft legal act must specify the price of the drawing up of the draft legal act and/or a study necessary for the drawing up of the draft legal act, as well as reasons to substantiate the necessity of procurement of the drawing up of the draft legal act and/or the study necessary for the drawing up of the draft legal act and the entities that have drawn up the draft legal act and/or carried out the necessary study.
Article 12. Concept of envisaged legal regulation
1. Before setting new or substantially amending the existing legal regulation, a concept of envisaged legal regulation may be drawn up, providing an analysis of the existing situation, specifying issues to be addressed, the objective, principles and main provisions of the envisaged legal regulation, the likely positive and negative consequences of the envisaged legal regulation, the provisions substantiating the envisaged legal regulation and other important information.
2. The concept of envisaged legal regulation shall be approved by an entity adopting a decision to draw up the concept.
3. In the event of a change in legal, social, financial, economic or other important circumstances as a result of which the provisions of the concept of envisaged legal regulation have become obsolete, inappropriate or unfeasable, the concept of envisaged legal regulation must be amended or repealed.
Article 13. Form and structure of a legal act
1. A law must contain the following in the chronological order:
1) the title of the law;
2) the date of adoption of the law and its number;
3) the place of adoption of the law;
4) the text of the law;
5) the position, name and surname of the entity signing the law.
2. A law shall be composed of parts, chapters, sections and articles. An article of the law shall be composed of paragraphs and points of the paragraphs, while the points may be divided into sub-points. Large-scale codified laws (codes) may, if necessary, be divided into books. Taking into account the nature, content and scale of the law, not all of its constituent parts may be present.
3. A legal act, excluding laws, must contain the following in the chronological order:
1) the name of the entity adopting the legal act;
2) the name of a type of the legal act;
3) the title (heading) of the legal act;
4) the date and place of adoption of the legal act and its number;
5) the text of the legal act;
6) the position, name/names and surname/surnames of the entity/entities signing the legal act.
4. Resolutions of the Seimas and decrees of the President of the Republic shall be composed of articles and paragraphs and points of the articles. Legal acts adopted by other state and municipal institutions and bodies shall be composed of points and sub-points and paragraphs of the points. A large-scale legal act may be divided into chapters and sections, if necessary, chapters/sections may be subdivided into sub-chapters/sub-sections.
5. A legal act may contain a preamble and annexes: tables, graphs, plans, maps, schemes, lists, etc.
Article 14. Requirements for a draft legal act and its drawing up
1. Draft legal acts shall be drawn up in compliance with the norms of the standard Lithuanian language and legal terminology.
2. Where an article/paragraph or a point of an article of a legal act is amended, a new version of the amended article/paragraph or point shall be presented. Where the legal act is supplemented with an article/paragraph or a point, a version of the new article/paragraph or point shall be presented. Where an article/paragraph or a point of the article of the legal act is repealed, that article/paragraph or point shall be specified.
3. Where more than half of articles or points of an amended legal act are amended, the whole legal act shall be set forth as a new version.
4. One legal act shall amend only one legal act.
5. When providing references to a particular law in legal acts (except for the cases where a reference is provided to the law itself), the full title of the law must be indicated.
6. When providing references to other legal acts, except for laws, in legal acts, the name/names of the entity/entities that adopted the legal act, the date of adoption thereof, the type of the legal act, the number granted by the entity/entities that adopted the legal act and the full title of the legal act shall be indicated.
7. A legal act whereby the provisions of European Union law are harmonised and implemented must indicate the legal acts of the European Union in compliance with the requirements set by an institution authorised by the Government.
8. Recommendations for the drawing up of legal acts shall be approved by the Minister of Justice.
Article 15. Assessment of the effect of envisaged legal regulation
1. When drawing up a draft legal act which provides for regulation of previously unregulated relations, also whereby legal regulation is substantially amended, assessment of the effect of envisaged legal regulation must be carried out. The comprehensiveness of this assessment must be proportionate to the likely consequences of the envisaged legal regulation. A decision on the assessment of the effect of envisaged legal regulation shall be adopted by the drafter.
2. When carrying out an assessment of the effect of envisaged legal regulation, the likely positive and negative effect on the area of that legal regulation and on persons or groups thereof in respect of whom the envisaged legal regulation will apply shall be determined. Taking into account the nature and scope of the new legal regulation provided for in the legal act, the effect on the economy, state finances, social environment, public administration, legal system, crime situation, level of corruption, environment, administrative burden, regional development and other areas must be assessed.
3. The results of assessment of the effect of envisaged legal regulation provided for in a draft law or another draft legal act of the Seimas shall be presented in an explanatory note or a separate document. When drawing up other draft legal acts, the results of assessment of the effect of envisaged legal regulation shall be presented in accordance with the procedure established by the Government or an institution authorised by it, a municipal council or an institution authorised by it.
Article 16. Assessment of the effect of envisaged legal regulation on the level of corruption
An assessment of the effect of envisaged legal regulation on the level of corruption (anti-corruption assessment of legal acts or their drafts) shall be carried out in the cases specified in the Law of the Republic of Lithuania on Prevention of Corruption. This assessment procedure shall be established by the Government.
Article 17. Drawing up of draft legal acts by electronic means in the Legislative Information System
1. Draft laws and other draft legal acts shall be drawn up by electronic means in the Legislative Information System.
2. The Legislative Information System shall provide the entity drawing up a draft legal act with an opportunity to make the process of drawing up of the draft legal act public, i.e. publish different versions of the draft legal act being drawn up and information relating to the drawing up of the draft legal act.
3. The drawing up of draft legal acts by electronic means shall usually involve the participation of bodies wherewith the draft legal act is to be coordinated. The drawing up of draft legal acts by electronic means may also involve the participation of other persons or groups thereof submitting proposals on the draft legal act being drawn up.
4. To obtain conclusions, a draft legal act shall be submitted by publishing it in the Legislative Information System and indicating the entities whose conclusions must be obtained. The conclusions on the draft legal acts shall be submitted by publishing them in the Legislative Information System.
5. Where a draft legal act involved public consultation, the results of the public consultation, as well as assessment of the comments and proposals received from the entities to whom the draft legal act was submitted to obtain conclusions must be provided to the entity adopting the legal act.
6. When participating in the drawing up of a draft legal act by electronic means, natural persons must indicate their name and surname and legal persons must indicate their name.
7. When electronically drawing up a draft legal act amending the legal regulation provided for in the legal act in force, a link between the draft legal act being drawn up and a consolidated version of the legal act in force at the time and other data from the Register of Legal Acts and the Legislative Information System relating to the draft legal act being drawn up shall be ensured.
8. The procedure for drawing up of draft legal acts by electronic means shall be established by the manager of the Legislative Information System.
CHAPTER THREE
ADOPTION, SIGNING, REGISTRATION, PUBLICATION AND ENTRY INTO FORCE OF LEGAL ACTS
Article 18. Adoption and signing of legal acts
1. Legal acts shall be adopted by entities duly authorised by legal acts.
2. An adopted legal act may not be corrected, except for spelling and grammatical mistakes discovered after the adoption of the legal act, which do not affect the content and meaning of the legal act.
3. Adopted legal acts shall be signed by duly authorised entities in accordance with the procedure laid down by legal acts. Adopted legal acts, except for laws and other legal acts signed by the President of the Republic, may be signed in the Legislative Information System with an advanced electronic signature.
Article 19. Registration and publication of legal acts
1. The legal acts referred to in Article 6(2)(1) to (18) shall be registered and officially published in the Register of Legal Acts.
2. The legal act signed by an entity with the powers laid down in legal acts that is an object of the Register of Legal Acts shall, not later than on the working day following the signing, be registered and published in the Register of Legal Acts, except for the objects of the Register of Legal Acts referred to in Article 6(2)(7) of this Law.
3. The registration and publication of a legal act in the Register of Legal Acts shall be considered to be the official publication of the legal act. The registration and publication of the legal acts provided for in Article 20(12) of this Law and of territorial planning documents approved whereby in the Register of Territorial Planning Documents of the Republic of Lithuania shall be considered to be their official publication.
4. Signed legal acts shall be stored by the entity that has adopted the legal act in accordance with the procedure established by this entity. One printed copy of the legal act signed with an electronic signature shall be stored by the entity that has adopted the legal act in accordance with the procedure established by this entity.
5. The objects of the Register of Legal Acts referred to in Article 6(2)(7) of this Law shall be published in the Register of Legal Acts on a proposal from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Lithuania.
Article 20. Entry into force of legal acts
1. A regulatory act shall enter into force on the day following the official publication in the Register of Legal Acts unless a later date of entry into force is provided for in the legal act itself, except for the cases provided for in paragraph 12 of this Article.
2. A law amending the Constitution shall enter into force not earlier than one month after the adoption.
3. The tax laws of the Republic of Lithuania establishing new taxes, new tax rates, tax reliefs, sanctions for violations of tax laws or substantially amending the procedure of specific taxation or the principles of legal regulation of taxation and their application shall enter into force not earlier than six months after their official publication. This provision shall not apply to amendments to the tax laws of the Republic of Lithuania relating to the Law on the Approval of Financial Indicators of the State Budget and Municipal Budgets for the corresponding year and to legal acts whereby Lithuanian national law is harmonised with European Union law.
4. Legal acts amending or setting new legal regulation of activities of economic entities or supervision thereof shall generally enter into force on either May 1 or November 1, however, in all cases not earlier than three months after their official publication. This provision shall not apply where the legal regulation is set or amended under the obligations set in European Union legislation and requirements of international treaties of the Republic of Lithuania, also where the legal regulation that is more favourable to economic entities is set.
5. A legal act having individual application that is an object of the Register of Legal Acts shall enter into force as of its publication in the Register of Legal Acts unless a later date of entry into force is provided for in the legal act having individual application itself.
6. A resolution of the Seimas on the removal from office of persons referred to in Article 74 of the Constitution or revocation of the mandate of a member of the Seimas in accordance with the procedure for impeachment, as well as a resolution of the Seimas whereby termination of the impeachment procedure upon a person’s resignation is formalised shall enter into force as of its official publication in the Register of Legal Acts and/or the media.
7. A resolution of the Seimas whereby mobilisation or demobilisation is declared, martial law or a state of emergency is introduced shall enter into force as of its official publication in the Register of Legal Acts and/or the media.
8. A resolution of the Seimas whereby the Speaker of the Seimas is assigned to temporarily act for the President of the Republic shall enter into force as of its official publication in the Register of Legal Acts.
9. Other legal acts adopted by the Seimas not referred to in paragraphs 1-8 of this Article shall enter into force on the day following their official publication in the Register of Legal Acts, unless a different procedure of entry into force is laid down in the legal acts themselves.
10. A decree of the President of the Republic on the temporary deputising for the President of the Republic shall enter into force as of its official publication in the Register of Legal Acts.
11. A decree of the President of the Republic on the declaration of mobilisation and introduction of martial law or a state of emergency shall enter into force as of its official publication in the Register of Legal Acts and/or the media.
12. The procedure for publication and entry into force of legal acts and territorial planning documents approved thereby shall be laid down in the Law of the Republic of Lithuania on Territorial Planning.
Article 21. Registration, official publication and entry into force of acts of the Constitutional Court. Registration and official publication of announcements of the President of the Constitutional Court
1. Rulings and decisions of the Constitutional Court regarding the interpretation of a ruling of the Constitutional Court, as well as announcements of the President of the Constitutional Court regarding the suspension of validity of a contested act and renewal of validity of the suspended act shall be registered and officially published in the Register of Legal Acts.
2. Signed rulings and decisions of the Constitutional Court regarding the interpretation of a ruling of the Constitutional Court shall be forwarded to the administrator of the Register of Legal Acts not later than on the following working day. These acts of the Constitutional Court must be registered in the Register of Legal Acts and officially published not later than on the working day following their forwarding to the administrator of the Register of Legal Acts, unless a different date of publication is laid down in the acts themselves.
3. Announcements of the President of the Constitutional Court regarding the suspension of validity of a contested act and renewal of validity of the suspended act must be registered in the Register of Legal Acts and officially published on the day of their forwarding to the administrator of the Register of Legal Acts.
4. Rulings and decisions of the Constitutional Court regarding the interpretation of a ruling of the Constitutional Court, as well as announcements of the President of the Constitutional Court regarding the suspension of validity of a contested act and renewal of validity of the suspended act shall enter into force on the day of their official publication in the Register of Legal Acts.
Article 22. Registration and publication of court decisions in the Register of Legal Acts
1. All decisions, judgments and rulings of the Supreme Court of Lithuania and the Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania, as well as effective decisions of administrative courts regarding the legitimacy of regulatory administrative acts shall be registered and published in the Register of Legal Acts.
2. The National Courts Administration shall be responsible for forwarding the courts' procedural decisions referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article for registration and publication in the Register of Legal Acts The National Courts Administration shall provide the data to the Register of Legal Acts in accordance with the procedure established by the Judicial Council, which has been coordinated with the manager of the Register of Legal Acts.
CHAPTER FOUR
MONITORING OF LEGAL REGULATION
Article 23. Object of monitoring of legal regulation
1. The following shall be assessed when carrying out monitoring of legal regulation:
1) the effectiveness of measures of legal regulation laid down in legal acts to meet the objectives of legal regulation;
2) the positive effect and negative consequences of legal regulation on the regulated area and other areas (the economy, state finances, social environment, public administration, legal system, crime situation, level of corruption, environment, administrative burden, regional development, etc.) and on persons or groups thereof;
3) direct and indirect benefit of legal regulation, its beneficiaries;
4) consistency of consequences of legal regulation when setting legal regulation with the planned objectives and consequences;
5) the need for amending legal regulation or waiving it.
2. The monitoring of legal regulation set in one legal act, a part thereof or several legal acts may be carried out.
Article 24. Entities, procedure and openness of monitoring of legal regulation
1. The monitoring of legal regulation shall be carried out by state and municipal institutions and bodies within the competence laid down in legal acts; in addition, working groups for the monitoring of legal regulation may be set up.
2. The monitoring of legal regulation laid down in legal acts shall be carried out where necessary upon assessment of the relevance and challenges of legal regulation. A legal act may provide for an obligation to carry out the monitoring of legal regulation laid down in that legal act.
3. A state or municipal institution or body carrying out the monitoring of legal regulation or a person authorised by it shall publish the following in the Legislative Information System:
1) information on the area of the legal regulation the monitoring whereof is carried out;
2) legal acts setting the legal regulation the monitoring whereof is carried out;
3) time limits for the start and end of carrying out of the monitoring of legal regulation;
4) the entity/entities carrying out the monitoring of legal regulation and a person/persons in charge of the monitoring of legal regulation.
4. The entity that has carried out the monitoring of legal regulation shall draw up and publish in the Legislative Information System a statement of monitoring of legal regulation, setting out the results of the monitoring of legal regulation together with an assessment of proposals submitted by persons regarding the legal regulation the monitoring whereof is carried out and the need for amending the legal regulation.
5. The Government shall appoint an institution coordinating the monitoring of legal regulation which shall, on a yearly basis, submit to the Government a report on the monitoring of legal regulation.
6. The procedure for carrying out the monitoring of legal regulation and the form of a statement of monitoring of legal regulation shall be established by the Government or an institution authorised by it.
CHAPTER FIVE
FINAL PROVISIONS
Article 25. Reorganisation of the Register of Laws and Other Legal Acts of the Republic of Lithuania
1. The Register of Laws and Other Legal Acts of the Republic of Lithuania shall be reorganised into the Register of Legal Acts the manager and administrator whereof shall be the Office of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania.
2. The Register of Laws and Other Legal Acts of the Republic of Lithuania shall be reorganised in accordance with the procedure laid down in the Law on Management of State Information Resources.
3. The State Enterprise Centre of Registers shall, by 31 August 2013, transfer the data and documents of the Register of Laws and Other Legal Acts of the Republic of Lithuania and the hardware and software used to manage the Register to the Office of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania. This transfer shall be formalised by a property transfer and acceptance act.
4. The beginning of operation of the Register of Legal Acts shall be 1 September 2013.
Article 26. Entry into force and implementation of the Law
1. This Law, except for Article 25 and Article 28, shall enter into force on 1 January 2014.
2. Legal acts accumulated in the Register of Laws and Other Legal Acts of the Republic of Lithuania before the entry into force of this Law shall also be processed in the Register of Legal Acts.
3. Legal acts which were submitted to the editorial office of the official gazette Valstybės žinios but not published before the entry into force of this Law shall, not later than on the working day following the entry into force of this Law, be registered and published in the Register of Legal Acts.
4. An obligation laid down in the legal acts in force to publish information in the supplement Informaciniai pranešimai to the official gazette Valstybės žinios shall mean an obligation to publish such information on the website of the respective entity, unless the legal acts provide otherwise.
5. Municipal administrations shall, by 31 July 2014, provide to the Register of Legal Acts electronic versions of regulatory acts of municipal institutions in force on 1 January 2014; consolidated versions of these legal acts shall be published in the Register of Legal Acts by 30 April 2016.
6. All consolidated versions of legal acts must be published in the Register of Legal Acts by 30 April 2016.
7. The National Courts Administration shall draw up an electronic version of decisions, judgments and rulings of the Supreme Court of Lithuania and the Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania adopted before 1 January 2014, as well as effective decisions of administrative courts regarding the legitimacy of regulatory administrative acts and shall submit them to the Register of Legal Acts by 30 June 2015.
Article 27. Repealed legal acts
Upon the entry into force of this Law, the following legal acts shall be repealed:
1) the Law of the Republic of Lithuania on Procedure of Publication and Coming into Force of Republic of Lithuania Laws and Other Legal Act (Official Gazette) No 12-296, 1993);
2) the Law on Procedure of Drafting of Republic of Lithuania Laws and Other Regulatory Enactments (Official Gazette) No 41-991, 1995);
3) the Law of the Republic of Lithuania on the Register of Laws and Other Legal Acts (Official Gazette) No 41-992, 1995);
4) the Law Supplementing Article 3 of the Law of the Republic of Lithuania on Procedure of Publication and Coming into Force of Republic of Lithuania Laws and Other Legal Acts (Official Gazette) No 67-1604, 1996);
5) the Law Amending Articles 4, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 11 of the Law on Procedure of Drafting of Republic of Lithuania Laws and Other Regulatory Enactments (Official Gazette) No 68-1632, 1996);
6) the Law Amending Article 14 of the Law on Procedure of Publication and Coming into Force of Republic of Lithuania Laws and Other Legal Acts (Official Gazette) No 125-2894, 1996);
7) the Law Amending Article 11 of the Law on Procedure of Drafting of Republic of Lithuania Laws and Other Regulatory Enactments (Official Gazette) No 111-2796, 1997);
8) the Law Supplementing Article 4 of the Law on Procedure of Drafting of Republic of Lithuania Laws and Other Regulatory Enactments (Official Gazette) No 6-114, 1998);
9) the Law Amending Articles 2, 3, 8, 9, 10, 15, 16, 17 of the Law on Procedure of Publication and Coming into Force of Republic of Lithuania Laws and Other Legal Acts, Supplementing It with Article 101 and Repealing Article 7 (Official Gazette) No 48-1524, 1999);
10) the Law Amending Article 7 of the Law on Procedure of Drafting of Republic of Lithuania Laws and Other Regulatory Enactments (Official Gazette) No 48-1527, 1999);
11) the Law Amending Articles 2 and 17 of the Law of the Republic of Lithuania on Procedure of Publication and Coming into Force of Republic of Lithuania Laws and Other Legal Acts (Official Gazette) No 60-1949, 1999);
12) the Law Supplementing Articles 4 and 6 of the Law of the Republic of Lithuania on Procedure of Publication and Coming into Force of Republic of Lithuania Laws and Other Legal Acts (Official Gazette) No 52-1483, 2000);
13) the Law Supplementing Articles 2, 15 and 17 of the Law of the Republic of Lithuania on Procedure of Publication and Coming into Force of Republic of Lithuania Laws and Other Legal Acts (Official Gazette) No 82-2831, 2001);
14) the Law Amending Articles 4 and 5 of the Law on Procedure of Drafting of Republic of Lithuania Laws and Other Regulatory Enactments and Supplementing It with Article 121 (Official Gazette) No 66-2705, 2002);
15) the Law Amending the Law of the Republic of Lithuania on Procedure of Publication and Coming into Force of Republic of Lithuania Laws and Other Legal Acts (Official Gazette) No 124-5626, 2002);
16) the Law Amending Articles 1, 3, 4, 8, 10, 17, 18, 19 and 23 of the Law on Procedure of Publication and Coming into Force of Republic of Lithuania Laws and Other Legal Acts (Official Gazette) No 108-4814, 2003);
17) the Law Amending Articles 1, 2, 3, 9, 11, 12 and 13 of the Law on Procedure of Publication and Coming into Force of Republic of Lithuania Laws and Other Legal Acts (Official Gazette) No 88-3294, 2005);
18) the Law Amending Article 4 of the Law on Procedure of Drafting of Republic of Lithuania Laws and Other Regulatory Enactments (Official Gazette) No 127-4823, 2006);
19) the Law Amending Article 11 of the Law on Procedure of Drafting of Republic of Lithuania Laws and Other Regulatory Enactments (Official Gazette) No 141-5400, 2006);
20) the Law Amending Articles 3 and 12 of the Law on Procedure of Publication and Coming into Force of Republic of Lithuania Laws and Other Legal Acts and Supplementing It with Article 31 (Official Gazette) No 12-493, 2007);
21) the Law Amending Article 12 of the Law on Procedure of Publication and Coming into Force of Republic of Lithuania Laws and Other Legal Acts (Official Gazette) No 48-2298, 2010);
22) the Law Amending Articles 7 and 8 of the Law on Procedure of Publication and Coming into Force of Republic of Lithuania Laws and Other Legal Acts (Official Gazette) No 72-3471, 2011);
Article 28. Proposals to the Government and other state and municipal institutions and bodies
1. The Government shall, by 1 September 2012, submit to the Seimas draft laws which it is necessary to amend upon the adoption of the Law on Legislative Framework.
2. The Government and other state and municipal institutions and bodies specified in this Law shall, before the entry into force of this Law, adopt legal acts implementing this Law.
I promulgate this Law passed by the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania.
PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC DALIA GRYBAUSKAITĖ