Law of Switzerland
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Swiss law is a set of rules which constitutes the law in Switzerland.


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) (SR 101 Art. 5a) and the ''Title 3 Confederation, Cantons and Communes'' (SR 101), the Cantons of Switzerland "''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 (SR 10), * acts of parliament ("laws") or by-laws, *
delegated legislation Primary legislation and secondary legislation (the latter also called delegated legislation or subordinate legislation) are two forms of law, created respectively by the legislative and executive branches of governments in representative democ ...
, regulations, or ordinances, and * adjudication (binding decisions) by competent 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 The ''Official Compilation of Federal Legislation'' (german: Amtliche Sammlung des Bundesrechts, AS; french: Recueil officiel du droit fédéral, RO; it, Raccolta ufficiale delle leggi federali, RU) is the federal government gazette of Switzerland ...
'' (German: , AS; French: , RO; Italian: , RU) is the federal
gazette A gazette is an official journal, a newspaper of record, or simply a newspaper. In English and French speaking countries, newspaper publishers have applied the name ''Gazette'' since the 17th century; today, numerous weekly and daily newspaper ...
, 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, French and
Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...
. All three language editions are equally valid. They are published by the
Federal Chancellery of Switzerland The Federal Chancellery of Switzerland is a department-level agency of the federal administration of Switzerland. It is the staff organisation of the federal government, the Federal Council. Since 2016, it has been headed by Federal Chancello ...
in the form of weekly supplements to loose leaf binders. Since 1999, they are also made available on the Internet in PDF format (as well as
HTML The HyperText Markup Language or HTML is the standard markup language for documents designed to be displayed in a web browser. It can be assisted by technologies such as Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and scripting languages such as JavaSc ...
in the case of the SR/RS).


Some particular laws


Civil code

The
Swiss Civil Code The Swiss Civil Code (SR/RS 210, german: Schweizerisches Zivilgesetzbuch (ZGB); french: Code civil suisse (CC); it, Codice civile svizzero (CC); rm, Cudesch civil svizzer) is a portion of the second part (SR/RS 2) of the internal Swiss law ("Pr ...
(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 Rodolfo Sacco (21 November 1923 – 21 March 2022) was an Italian legal scholar. Biography Born in Fossano, Kingdom of Italy, Italy, he was professor emeritus at the University of Turin, Faculty of Law. He is arguably one of the country's best k ...
) argue that the Swiss code derives from a distinct paradigm of civil law.


Criminal law

The
Swiss Criminal Code , french: Code pénal suisse (CP), it, Codice penale svizzero (CP), rm, Cudesch penal svizzer , citation = , territorial_extent = Switzerland , enacted_by = Federal Assembly of Switzerland , date_enacted = 20 Decemb ...
(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 Capital punishment is forbidden in Switzerland by article 10, paragraph 1 of the Swiss Federal Constitution. Capital punishment was abolished from federal criminal law in 1942, but remained available in military criminal law until 1992. The last a ...
and the legalization of homosexual acts between adults (until 1990, the age of consent 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 Parole (also known as provisional release or supervised release) is a form of early release of a prison inmate where the prisoner agrees to abide by certain behavioral conditions, including checking-in with their designated parole officers, or ...
) 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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See also

* Swiss Code of Obligations (SR 22) *
Referendum A referendum (plural: referendums or less commonly referenda) is a direct vote by the electorate on a proposal, law, or political issue. This is in contrast to an issue being voted on by a representative. This may result in the adoption of a ...
*
Swiss nationality law Swiss citizenship is the status of being a citizen of Switzerland and it can be obtained by birth or naturalisation. The Swiss Citizenship Law is based on the following principles: * Triple citizenship level ( Swiss Confederation, canton, and mu ...
* Swiss Institute of Comparative Law * Law enforcement in Switzerland


References


External links


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