Bundesverfassung Schweiz, auf blauen Untergrund

Swiss law is a set of rules which constitutes the law in

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

Structure and Sources

There is a hierarchy of political levels which reflects the legal and constitutional character of Switzerland. The Federal law (german: Bundesrecht, french: Droit fédéral, it, Diritto federale) consist of the following parts: * International law, * Internal law, According to the current Federal Constitution (SR 101 Art. 1, 3) and the principle of

subsidiarity (Switzerland) Subsidiarity is a principle of social organization that holds that social and political issues should be dealt with at the most immediate or local level that is consistent with their resolution. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' defines subsid ...

(SR 101 Art. 5a) and the ''Title 3 Confederation, Cantons and Communes'' (SR 101), the

Cantons of Switzerland The 26 cantons of Switzerland (german: Kanton; french: canton ; it, cantone; Sursilvan and Surmiran: ; Vallader and Puter: ; Sutsilvan: ; Rumantsch Grischun: ) are the member states of the Swiss Confederation. The nucleus of the Swiss Con ...

"''are sovereign except to the extent that their sovereignty is limited by the Federal Constitution. They exercise all rights that are not vested in the Confederation''" and "''the principle of subsidiarity must be observed in the allocation and performance of state tasks''". The Internal law (german: Landesrecht, french: Droit interne, it, Diritto interno, rm, Dretg naziunal) consists of the following parts: #State - People - Authorities (SR 1) #Private law - Administration of civil justice - Enforcement (SR 2) #Criminal law - Administration of criminal justice - Execution of sentences (SR 3) #Education - Science - Culture (SR 4) #National defence (SR 5) #Finance (SR 6) #Public works - Energy - Transport (SR 7) #Health - Employment - Social security (SR 8) #Economy - Technical cooperation (SR 9) Some major aspects are: * the

Swiss Federal Constitution The Federal Constitution of the Swiss Confederation (SR 10; german: Bundesverfassung der Schweizerischen Eidgenossenschaft (BV); french: Constitution fédérale de la Confédération suisse (Cst.); it, Costituzione federale della Confederaz ...

(SR 10), * acts of parliament ("laws") or by-laws, * delegated legislation, regulations, or ordinances, and * adjudication (binding decisions) by

competent Competence may refer to: *Competence (geology), the resistance of a rock against deformation or plastic flow. *Competence (human resources), a standardized requirement for an individual to properly perform a specific job *Competence (law), the me ...

tribunals.

Publications

The federal government publishes legal instruments in three principal official publications: * the '' Systematic Compilation'' (german: Systematische Sammlung des Bundesrechts (SR), french: Recueil systématique du droit fédéral (RS), it, Raccolta sistematica del diritto federale (RS), rm, Collecziun sistematica) is the official compilation of all federal laws, ordinances, international and intercantonal treaties that are in force, * the '' Official Compilation of Federal Legislation'' (German: , AS; French: , RO; Italian: , RU) is the federal gazette, and * the '' Federal Gazette'' (German: , BBl; French: , FF; Italian: , FF) publishes various official texts of the federal government. All three publications are issued in the three official languages of Switzerland:

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

and Italian. All three language editions are equally valid. They are published by the Federal Chancellery of Switzerland in the form of weekly supplements to

loose leaf A loose leaf is a piece of paper of any kind that is not bound in place, or available on a continuous roll, and may be punched so as to be organized in a ring binder. Loose leaf paper may be sold as free sheets, or made up into notepads, where p ...

binders. Since 1999, they are also made available on the Internet in

PDF Portable Document Format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems. ...

format (as well as HTML in the case of the SR/RS).

Some particular laws

Civil code

The Swiss Civil Code (SR 21) was adopted on 10 December 1907 (Status as of 1 January 2016, SR 210) and has been in force since 1912. It was largely influenced by the German civil code, and partly influenced by the French civil code, but the majority of comparative law scholars (such as K. Zweigert and Rodolfo Sacco) argue that the Swiss code derives from a distinct paradigm of civil law.

Criminal law

The Swiss Criminal Code (SR 311) of 21 December 1937 (Status as of 1 July 2016, SR 311.0) goes back to an 1893 draft by Carl Stooss. It has been in effect since 1942. Among the notable changes to earlier Swiss criminal law was the abolition of capital punishment in Switzerland and the legalization of homosexual acts between adults (until 1990, the

age of consent The age of consent is the age at which a person is considered to be legally competent to consent to sexual acts. Consequently, an adult who engages in sexual activity with a person younger than the age of consent is unable to legally claim ...

for homosexual acts remained set at 20 years, compared to 16 years for heterosexual acts). The code has been revised numerous times since 1942. The most recent revision (as of 2010), in effect since 2007, introduced the possibility to convert short prison sentences (below one year) into fines, calculated based on a daily rate which has to be established based on the "personal and economic situation of the convict at the time of the verdict", with an upper limit set at CHF 3000 per day of the sentence. Practically all prison sentences shorter than one year have since been converted into fines, conditional sentences ( parole) to conditional fines. This has caused controversy because the result is that lighter offences not punishable by imprisonment always result in unconditional fines, while more severe offences now often result in conditional fines that do not need to be paid at all. The Federal Council in October 2010 announced its intention to revert to the earlier system, and all large parties expressed at least partial support.Bedingte Geldstrafe bald abgeschafft?
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References

External links

Classified Compilation of Federal Legislation
*Marc Thommen (Ed.)
Introduction to Swiss Law
Berlin/Bern 2018 {{DEFAULTSORT:Swiss Law