Law and Ordinance Gazette for the Free State of Thuringia

The Law and Ordinance Gazette for the Free State of Thuringia (GVBl.) Is a magazine that has been published by the Thuringian Parliament since November 1990 and appears at irregular intervals.

The magazine can be subscribed to for a fee, whereby the annual subscription in July 2020 cost a total of 43.46 euros; the printing is currently carried out by Gebr. Frank in Gera . The PDF files for the individual issues are also available free of charge on the Landtag's homepage (“Parliamentary Documentation”).

Content and full texts

The content of the Law and Ordinance Gazette is fully available online. It can be called up here for the individual years:

1990 • 1991 • 1992 • 1993 • 1994 • 1995 • 1996 • 1997 • 1998 • 1999

2000 • 2001 • 2002 • 2003 • 2004 • 2005 • 2006 • 2007 • 2008 • 2009

2010 • 2011 • 2012 • 2013 • 2014 • 2015 • 2016 • 2017 • 2018 • 2019

2020 •

Renaming

Since November 1990, there have been two important changes in title and scope:

From November 1990 to February 1991 the state parliament published the “Law Gazette for the State of Thuringia” and the State Chancellery the “Ordinance Gazette for the State of Thuringia”, both papers were merged with No. 2 of February 8, 1991 and under the new title “Law - and Ordinance Gazette for the State of Thuringia ”published; the numbering of the law gazette was continued.
A second change was connected with the entry into force of the constitution in autumn 1993: the country was now called the Free State of Thuringia, which meant that the law and regulation gazette was also renamed. It has been published since No. 31 of November 29, 1993 as the “Law and Ordinance Gazette for the Free State of Thuringia”.

meaning

Announcement sheet

The purpose of this magazine is to make certain legal texts (laws, ordinances) public. In this context, one speaks of the promulgation of legal texts, which is why legal and ordinance gazettes are sometimes also referred to as promulgation sheets or proclamation organs. - The promulgation of legal texts is seen as an important requirement in democratic states.

Official Journal

Since the journal is published by an authority, namely the Thuringian Parliament, it is an official journal . According to Section 28 (1) of the Joint Rules of Procedure , the Law and Ordinance Gazette is one of four official papers in the Free State of Thuringia.

Contents of the law and regulation gazette

The texts that are published in the Law and Ordinance Gazette can be divided into three groups:

Laws passed by the state parliament and drawn up by the state parliament president : The Thuringian state constitution stipulates in Article 85 paragraph 1 sentence 1 that every law must be published in the law and regulation gazette. This is the final step in the legislative process. Conversely, this also means that a law passed by the state parliament cannot have any effect as long as it has not been printed in the law and regulation gazette. Article 85 of the constitution means that there can be no “secret laws” in the Free State of Thuringia.
Statutory ordinances issued by the state government or an individual minister ; There are two special features to note here:
- Not all statutory orders are printed in the law and regulation gazette. The state constitution actually provides for this in Article 85, Paragraph 1, Clause 2, because according to this, all legal ordinances are to be printed in the Law and Ordinance Gazette. At the same time, however, the constitution allows an exception: namely through the "reservation of other legal regulation". That is, if a law is passed that stipulates something different, that is permissible. Such a law was passed in Thuringia as early as 1991: Section 1 of the Proclamation Act contains the restriction that statutory ordinances of the state government or the state minister are to be printed in the law and regulation gazette, that other statutory orders are to be published in the Thuringian state gazette or in some other way ( see Sections 2 to 4 of the Proclamation Act).
- While laws do not take effect as long as they have not been printed in the law and regulation gazette, this does not apply to statutory regulations. Section 9 of the Proclamation Act allows exceptions here. Accordingly, in certain cases it is sufficient if the ordinance was initially published in another way and only later published in the law and ordinance gazette.
Other publications of major importance : Other texts, for example notifications from the President of the State Parliament that a state treaty has become effective. Section 28 (2) sentence 1 of the joint rules of procedure for the state government as well as for the ministries and the state chancellery of the Free State of Thuringia speaks of “other publications of essential importance”.

Individual evidence

↑ Compare, for example, the imprint in GVBl. 2020 p. 424 ( here ).
↑ The search function of the parliamentary documentation seems a bit cumbersome: the simplest seems to be a search using the document number ( here ): you first select the law and ordinance gazette as the document type in the mask, then you enter the serial number in the "Document number" field, in order to get directly to the specified output.
↑ Compare Hans Schneider: Legislation. A teaching and manual, 3rd edition, CF Müller, 2002, paragraph 464, 481 ff.

[1] Compare, for example, the imprint in GVBl. 2020 p. 424 ( here ).

[2] The search function of the parliamentary documentation seems a bit cumbersome: the simplest seems to be a search using the document number ( here ): you first select the law and ordinance gazette as the document type in the mask, then you enter the serial number in the "Document number" field, in order to get directly to the specified output.

[3] Compare Hans Schneider: Legislation. A teaching and manual, 3rd edition, CF Müller, 2002, paragraph 464, 481 ff.