Systematic Compilation of Federal Legislation

The Systematic Compilation of Federal Legislation (SR) (German: Systematische Sammlung des Bundesrechts, SR; French: Recueil systématique du droit fédéral, RS; Italian: Raccolta sistematica, RS) is the official compilation of all Swiss federal laws, ordinances, international and intercantonal treaties that are in force.

It is published by the Federal Chancellery in Switzerland's three official languages (German, French and Italian), with only a few texts in Romansh and English.

Initially conferred with a legal value, it has now been stripped of this, and replaced by the Official Compilation of Federal Legislation (German: Amtliche Sammlung des Bundesrechts, AS; French: Recueil officiel du droit fédéral, RO; Italian: Raccolta ufficiale delle leggi federali, RU).

The predecessor of the current SR was the Systematic Collection (German: Bereinigte Sammlung der Bundesgesetze und Verordnungen der Schweizerischen Eidgenossenschaft (BS); French: Recueil systématique des lois et ordonnances de la Confédération suisse (RS); Italian: Collezione sistematica delle leggi e ordinanze della Confederazione svizzera (CS)).

[1][2] By the end of 1945, the Official Compilation of Federal Legislation (AS), created in 1848, had grown to 72 volumes,[3] some of which ran to 2,000 pages.

[4] Searching for acts became increasingly complicated, to the point where even the federal administration and specialized authorities "had difficulty determining what was valid and what was no longer".

[4] In the interests of legal certainty,[3][6][7] the creation of an uncluttered compilation had also become necessary because of the prolific crisis and wartime legislative activity[6] of the 1930s and 1940s.

[11] The Federal Chancellery, in agreement with the FDJP, asked Max Imboden, then professor at the University of Zurich, to draw up a report on the subject.

[3] A second conference of experts[nb 3] was held on January 17, 1948, to deal with the Federal Council's supplementary message of 1948[23] and various technical details.

The Compilation was published from 1949 to 1953,[29] followed by the Registers in 1955, for a total of 15 red volumes,[2][30] and had an effect on the systematics of today's SR.[2] Germann assumes, however, that jurists are carrying out a clean-up job (Säuberungsarbeit), also in relation to wartime laws still in force.

[2][32] The total cost of printing the 1948 Compilation has been estimated by the Federal Council at CHF 1.5 million (from 1946, approx.

[29] This prompted the then St. Gallen National Councillor Kurt Furgler to submit a postulate in 1960 calling for regular updating of the Compilation.

These criticisms, summarized in the Federal Council's message, came from the Aargau State Council and the Thurgau Cantonal Court, the former accusing the reprint of "perfectionism ... to throw away, in the stores of the Federal Chancellery but also in the homes of thousands of users, the fifteen volumes of a well-ordered collection in use for just over a decade", while the latter considered that this was of interest only to lawyers.

[40] In order to cope with regular updating, the Federal Council proposed the publication of acts listed in the SR in loose-leaf form, a system recommended by a large number of the legal players consulted.

[44] A complete reprint took place in 1994 and 1995, at the same time as the digitization of the SR.[45] In order to bridge the gap between volume deliveries, supplements were issued every six months; the quarterly frequency resumed in 1996.

A postulate submitted by former Schwyz National Councillor Toni Dettling called on the Federal Council to publish the SR in electronic form (citing the CD-ROM as an example).

[2] Each act of law (statute, ordinance, international treaty) is given a unique number to identify it,[56] which is the main innovation of the RS.

On the other hand, the Ordinance concerning admission to the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne bears the number 414.110.422.3.

The determination of the subject matter depends, among other things, on the constitutional or legal basis mentioned in the introduction to the act in question, and on which federal office is competent.

[74] The paper version is also provided with a keyword directory, also available on the Internet,[75] edited by the Centre des Publications Officielles.

[83] The SR can be seen as a more intuitive representation of the law at a given point in time ("benutzerfreundlichen" Abbildung des Rechts zu einem bestimmten Zeitpunkt")[84] and as an information medium in its own right,[85] making it "de facto much more frequently consulted than the AS".

La translaziun d’in decret federal serva a l’infurmaziun, n’ha dentant nagina validitad legala.

[2][32][109] Before preparing a law to this effect, the Federal Administration carried out a "meticulous sorting of the legislative acts contained in the 73 volumes of the Systematic Compilation".

Even after careful examination, the Federal Council could not rule out omissions (in this case, the inclusion in the Compilation of acts that had in fact been repealed), thereby jeopardizing the "clarity of the legislation".

On the one hand, the Federal Council believed that the granting of binding force in 1948 was due to doubts about the validity of a number of acts resulting from the emergency legislation passed during World War II.

[119] Finally, and in line with the last argument, the physical nature of the SR (a loose-leaf collection) may present a risk of discrepancies with the AS (particularly in the event of delays in delivery or layout).

[119] The Federal Council therefore refrained from using retroactivity in order to withdraw the SR's negative binding force.

[119] Thanks to the PublA, René Meylan, Socialist State Councillor from Neuchâtel and the commission's rapporteur on this message, considered that the nature of the SR was to be "clearer and better defined than in the past".

[121] A postulate submitted in 2014 by Fribourg Socialist National Councillor Ursula Schneider Schüttel[122] called on the Federal Council "to study the possibility of giving official status to the consolidated version of laws, indicating the means that would be required for this purpose (in time, money, human resources)".

[123] Following this postulate, the Federal Council produced a report which concluded that "several practical reasons ... prevent ... to ... expressly confer a legally decisive character [to the SR]", as this would require a complete overhaul of the PublA as well as the revision of several laws affecting Parliament and the federal administration.