Gazette and act citation

What it is

A citation of an act does two things at once. It identifies the instrument, and it says where the instrument was published. The second half is what makes the citation checkable: a reader who has the gazette can reach the authentic text.

Composing one settles four questions the languages leave open: which elements appear and in what order, how the gazette is named, whether the reference is given at all, and, least obviously, which of several forms of it applies, since gazettes change how they number themselves and the older form does not lapse.

The name the act is cited by, and the accepted rendering of that name in another language, belong to the short-title record: that the Country Compendium gives Bundesgesetzblatt Teil I as Federal Law Gazette Part I is that record's business, not this one's. The pointer into the act's own parts belongs to the subdivision record. What is left here is the presence and order of the elements and the form of the reference.

Where the expectation comes from

Every rule opened for this record is a drafting body's own. The tier is House across all three, and what varies is the legal form of the instrument rather than its reach.

• Germany. The Handbuch der Rechtsförmlichkeit sets the full citation at Rn. 55 as the citation name, the date of adoption or last republication, the gazette reference and any note of the most recent amendment. Its force is not self-declared: § 42 Absatz 4 of the Gemeinsame Geschäftsordnung der Bundesministerien provides that for the drafting form of bills "gelten das vom Bundesministerium der Justiz herausgegebene Handbuch der Rechtsförmlichkeit", and § 1 that the GGO "gilt für die Bundesministerien", while the Handbuch's own subtitle calls its contents recommendations.
• The Netherlands. Aanwijzing 3.36 takes the gazette out of a citation that uses a citeertitel, since such a regeling "wordt daardoor afdoende geïdentificeerd"; 3.37 supplies the full heading with "(Stb. [jaartal, volgnummer])" where there is none; 3.45 fixes the notation, "Stb. 2011, 35"; 3.46 abbreviates the Official Journal PbEU rather than the Union's own Pb, to keep it apart from the gazette of Curaçao, with "L" or "C" before the number. Aanwijzing 1.2 binds ministers and those working under them.
• Türkiye. The Mevzuat Hazırlama Usul ve Esasları Hakkında Yönetmelik requires at madde 21 that a reference state "atıf yapılan mevzuatın tarihi, sayısı ve adı", then sets a different element list for each class of instrument.

Consequences for translation

The elements are determinate once the commissioning authority is known; the hard part is knowing which date governs.

• The form of a gazette reference follows the publication date of the cited act, not the date of writing. Rn. 64 divides the Bundesgesetzblatt at 31 December 2022 and directs that earlier references stay unchanged even in new legislation, because until then one issue could carry several acts, so the page identifies the act. Aanwijzing 3.46 divides the Official Journal at 1 October 2023 and prints an example from each era. Modernizing an older reference is an error that looks like a correction.
• Whether the gazette appears is a rule and not a habit. Under 3.36 and 3.37 a Dutch citation carries it exactly when the act has no short title, so adding or deleting one is a finding.
• The date inside a reference answers to the citation rule, not to the general date convention. Madde 21 requires figures separated by obliques with no leading zero, which a date correct elsewhere in the text may fail.
• A repealed instrument may be cited, but madde 21 requires it be marked as repealed, so carrying such a citation across unmarked strips a warning the source gave.

Examples

EN>NL

• Source: Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 ... (General Data Protection Regulation) (Text with EEA relevance)
• Target: Verordening (EU) 2016/679 van het Europees Parlement en de Raad van 27 april 2016 ... (algemene verordening gegevensbescherming)
• Comment: One act in two official versions. Aanwijzing 3.42 requires the title the Official Journal gave, so the Dutch is looked up rather than translated, and its toelichting drops the relevance note while keeping the bracketed short designation. By 3.42 with 3.46 the place of publication is usually left out of an L-series citation, the number being in the title. Rendering the English into Dutch, relevance note and all, misses three rules.

DE>EN

• Source: Versicherungsvertragsgesetz vom 23. November 2007 (BGBl. I S. 2631)
• Target: Versicherungsvertragsgesetz of 23 November 2007 (BGBl. I S. 2631)
• Comment: The Handbuch's own worked citation at Rn. 60. The reference is retained rather than converted, and the pre-2023 form is right for an act published in 2007 however the gazette numbers itself now. Writing the issue-number form here produces a reference that cannot be followed.

References

• Handbuch der Rechtsförmlichkeit. Bundesministerium der Justiz, fourth revised edition 2024, consulted at hdr4.bmj.de. Teil B, Abschnitt II, 2 (Zitierung von Rechtsvorschriften des Bundes), Rn. 55 (Vollzitat), Rn. 57, Rn. 59 (Zitiername), Rn. 60 (Ausfertigungsdatum) and Rn. 64 (amtliche Verkündungsorgane).
• Gemeinsame Geschäftsordnung der Bundesministerien, as last amended 15 May 2024, GMBl 2024 Nr. 19, p. 386. § 1 (Geltungsbereich), § 42 Absatz 2, which refers to Anlage 4, and § 42 Absatz 4 on the drafting form of bills.
• Aanwijzingen voor de regelgeving, consolidated to the eleventh amendment, Stcrt. 2022, 5649. Aanwijzing 1.2, 3.36, 3.37, 3.42, 3.45 and 3.46, each read on its own page at the Kenniscentrum voor beleid en regelgeving.
• Mevzuat Hazırlama Usul ve Esasları Hakkında Yönetmelik, put into force by Cumhurbaşkanı Kararı 5210 of 23 February 2022, Resmî Gazete of 24 February 2022, sayı 31760. Madde 21 (Atıfların yapılması), first, second, third and ninth paragraphs, consolidated text on the legislation portal of the Cumhurbaşkanlığı.
• Country Compendium. A companion to the English Style Guide, Directorate- General for Translation, European Commission, November 2025. Germany entry, law gazettes.
• Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC, English and Dutch language versions, official titles.