LexThe Luxembourg and EU law this site holds, at a date you choose

Guide

How to read Lex

What the dates on Lex mean, what a version is, how Lex says what it holds and what it does not, and the words it uses, with a glossary.

Two kinds of date

Lex keeps two kinds of date apart, and never merges them, in what it writes or in what a screen reader hears.

The first kind says, from the publisher's dates, which text answers a date. A Luxembourg version is “applicable from” the date Legilux states for it, until the day before the end date Legilux gives it or, where it gives none, until the day before the next version begins; “(publisher)” after a date marks it as the publisher's date, never one Lex worked out.

For an EU act, Lex shows wordings: the original wording, which carries the act's date in the publisher's Formex package, and each consolidated wording, which carries the publisher's consolidation date. A wording answers every date from its own to the day before the next one's, and that is all Lex says of it: a consolidated wording is documentation, not a statement that the act bound anyone on that date.

The second kind says when a text was published, and when Lex collected it. A publication date is the publisher's; the index's build date and each publisher's last complete collection, at the foot of a page that has an answer from the server, are Lex's own. Neither says from when a text is applicable.

Lex says no more of a period than the publisher's dates say: it never claims that a text bound anyone from one date to another.

Each date with what it is

The publisher's record can give an act several dates: its entry into force, its application, the end of its validity, a deadline, its signature. Lex shows each one as a separate value, under its own name, and never gives one as another.

When the file of an act as first published states no date from which it is applicable, Lex dates it by its entry into force in the publisher's record and says so, with the mark “no date stated (entry into force: …)”.

Dates are always calendar dates, never relative ones such as “yesterday”.

As published, and consolidated

An act as published is the act as the official journal published it. A consolidated version is a text of the act with the changes later acts made to it, as of a date, put together by the publisher.

Consolidated texts have no legal effect: the authentic texts are those published in the Journal officiel du Grand-Duché de Luxembourg (Mémorial A) and in the Official Journal of the European Union.

Where Lex holds a Luxembourg act only as first published, it labels it “as published; may have been amended since; no consolidated text”: later acts may have changed it, and Lex holds no version with those changes.

When the publisher has issued an act in another language beside French, Lex shows each of the publisher's language versions it holds, and says so when the publisher's record does not state which one is authentic.

Versions whose text Lex does not hold

Lex can know from the publisher's catalogue that a version exists without holding its text: its file may be a PDF, which Lex does not read; its licence may not allow Lex to show it; or Lex may not have collected it. Lex never shows another version's text as that version's.

An article held without text is named apart, under “Held without text”, and is never quoted, searched or exported as text.

An EU annex the publisher provides only as images is never shown as text, searched, quoted or exported; Lex gives its official source.

Gaps

When the publisher's catalogue lists no version for some dates between two versions, Lex shows the gap as it is: it does not stretch the version before it over those dates, and an unchanged wording on either side of a gap says nothing of them.

A gap in the catalogue is not a gap in the law, and an absence on Lex is an absence in what Lex holds: when Lex holds no text for a date, that is not evidence that the act or the law did not exist.

Two versions for one date

The publisher's dates can make two versions cover the same date without saying which one applies. When their texts differ, or Lex does not hold the text of each, Lex chooses neither: it shows both, each with its dates and its link, and you choose which one to read. When it holds the text of each and it is the same, it can show that text once, as the text of the act as published or of the version that begins last.

How current Lex is

At the foot of every page, in the part a screen reader names “How current this is”, a page that has an answer from the server says when the index Lex answers from was built and, for each publisher, when Lex last finished collecting its texts. A text the publisher published after that is not on Lex yet.

When a publisher's last complete collection is older than Lex allows, a banner says so under the header of every page that has an answer from the server: “Some texts may be out of date”. The publisher may have published changes since; check its official site.

Until Lex has measured how long a publisher's new texts take to reach it, each publisher's line says that the lag is not yet measured.

A permalink names one version for good: its address holds the publisher, the act, the version's date and the digest of its text, the language and the article; for an EU act, it names one wording in the same way. It shows that text, and says above it when a newer version is applicable or a later wording is held. If Lex serves another text for that date, or no longer holds that one, it says so first, and shows the text it serves or links the one it holds.

An act's readable address, with no date and no digest, follows the act: it opens the version, or for an EU act the wording, that answers today's date in Luxembourg.

Under a quoted article, “Cite this article” gives it in three forms: “Usual citation”, as it is usually written; “With its permalink”, the same followed by the permalink; and “Evidence form”, with the identifiers, dates and digest that let anyone check the quotation. In a document, cite the official text by its official reference.

A digest is a fingerprint of an exact text: if one character changes, the digest changes. Lex computes one over each text it quotes, so that a quotation can be checked character for character.

With a keyboard

Lex has no keyboard shortcuts of its own, so no key does anything you did not ask for. Tab moves to the next link, field or button, and Shift and Tab to the one before; Enter follows a link or sends a form.

The first link on every page, “Skip to the content”, leads past the menus straight to the content.

Glossary

The words Lex uses, as its pages print them, and what each one means.

application
Of an EU act: the date the publisher's record gives for the act, or a part of it, to apply.
Applies from
In a dossier's table of versions: the date from which the publisher states a Luxembourg version is applicable. It is Legilux's date, never one Lex works out.
Articles not admitted
On a dossier: how many articles of a version Lex records without admitting them as text it quotes; the note under the table, from the server, says what the count covers.
as published; may have been amended since; no consolidated text
Lex holds this Luxembourg act only as the official journal first published it: later acts may have changed it, and Lex holds no consolidated version with their changes.
Changes
The page that lists the Luxembourg versions dated in a window of dates, each with the version it follows and whether the wording changed.
Dossier
What Lex holds for one act: a Luxembourg act's titles and versions, or an EU act's expressions, with the publisher's dates, and what Lex does not hold.
end of validity
Of an EU act: the date the publisher's record gives for the act, or a part of it, to cease to have effect.
entry into force
The date the publisher's record gives for an act to enter into force. It is a date of its own, not the date from which a version is applicable, and Lex never gives one as the other.
Evidence form
The citation with what it takes to check it: the act's identifier, its dates, the official journal's reference where Lex holds it, the digest of the text quoted and which text is authentic.
Held without text
Lex knows the article from the publisher's record but does not hold its text, or may not show it. It is listed apart and never quoted, and an export records it as excluded, with the reason.
How current this is
At the foot of every page that has an answer from the server: when the index was built, and when each publisher's texts were last collected.
Index built from
The revision of Lex's code that built the index an answer comes from.
Service running
The revision of Lex's code that served the answer.
Some texts may be out of date
A banner shown under the header of every page that has an answer from the server when a publisher's texts were last collected longer ago than Lex allows.
Text digest (SHA-256)
A fingerprint of an article's exact text: if one character changes, the digest changes, so that anyone can check that a quotation is the text Lex served.
The publisher's catalogue between versions
On a dossier: what the publisher's catalogue says between an act's versions, such as a gap, two versions on one date, or a version whose text Lex does not hold.
Today in Luxembourg
Today's date in Luxembourg, which Lex reads a text at when you give no date.
Trust and Coverage
The page that says what Lex holds and what it lacks, as counted in its index, and how its quality checks went.
Usual citation
An article's citation as it is usually written, with the date of its version, or of its EU wording, when that text is not known to be the one that answers today.
Version applicable from
How a search result, a reading or a citation names a Luxembourg version: by the date from which the publisher states it is applicable, “(publisher)” marking the date as the publisher's.
What would answer this
Under a refusal: what would turn it into an answer, such as a corrected identifier, or a text the publisher publishes later.
wording changed
Between two versions of a Luxembourg act: the article's text differs from the version before. Lex says nothing of what the change means.
Wording date
Of an EU act: the date that the wording shown carries, the act's own date for the original wording and the publisher's consolidation date for a consolidated one.
wording unchanged
Between two versions of a Luxembourg act: the article's text is the same as in the version before.