Federal Act
on the Compilations of Federal Legislation
and the Federal Gazette
(Publications Act, PublA)

The Federal Assembly of the Swiss Confederation,

based on Article 173 paragraph 2 of the Federal Constitution1,
and having considered the Federal Council Dispatch of 22 October 20032,

decrees:

Section 1 General Provisions 3

3 Amended by No I of the FA of 26 Sept. 2014, in force since 1 Jan. 2016 (AS 2015 3977; BBl 2013 7057).

Art. 1 Subject matter 4  

This Act reg­u­lates the pub­lic­a­tion by the Fed­er­al Chan­cellery of:5

a.
the com­pil­a­tions of fed­er­al le­gis­la­tion (the Of­fi­cial Com­pil­a­tion of Fed­er­al Le­gis­la­tion, AS and the Clas­si­fied Com­pil­a­tion of Fed­er­al Le­gis­la­tion, SR);
b.
the Fed­er­al Gaz­ette (BBl);
c.6
oth­er texts re­lated to le­gis­la­tion.

4 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 26 Sept. 2014, in force since 1 Jan. 2016 (AS 2015 3977; BBl 2013 7057).

5 Amended by No I of the FA of 26 Sept. 2014, in force since 1 Jan. 2016 (AS 2015 3977; BBl 2013 7057).

6 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 26 Sept. 2014, in force since 1 Jan. 2016 (AS 2015 3977; BBl 2013 7057).

Art. 1a Online publication 7  

1 Pub­lic­a­tion un­der this Act takes place cent­rally via a pub­licly ac­cess­ible on­line plat­form (the pub­lic­a­tions plat­form).

2 In prin­ciple, it also takes place in a form that is ma­chine-read­able and in which the cur­rent and all earli­er ver­sions are made avail­able. The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall spe­cify the ex­cep­tions.

7 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 26 Sept. 2014, in force since 1 Jan. 2016, para. 2 in force since 1 Ju­ly 2022 (AS 2015 3977; 2021 693; BBl 2013 7057).

Section 2 Official Compilation of Federal Legislation

Art. 2 Enactments of the Confederation  

The fol­low­ing shall be pub­lished in the AS:

a.
the Fed­er­al Con­sti­tu­tion;
b.
fed­er­al acts;
c.
or­din­ances of the Fed­er­al As­sembly;
d.
or­din­ances of the Fed­er­al Coun­cil;
e.
oth­er le­gis­lat­ive en­act­ments of the fed­er­al au­thor­it­ies and of or­gan­isa­tions and per­sons un­der pub­lic or private law that are as­signed ad­min­is­trat­ive du­ties but do not form part of the Fed­er­al Ad­min­is­tra­tion;
f.
fed­er­al de­crees sub­ject to the op­tion­al ref­er­en­dum;
g.
fed­er­al de­crees on the ap­prov­al of in­ter­na­tion­al treat­ies;
h.
simple fed­er­al de­crees, if the Fed­er­al As­sembly so de­cides.
Art. 3 International treaties and international law decrees  

1 If they are bind­ing on Switzer­land, the fol­low­ing shall be pub­lished in the AS:

a.
in­ter­na­tion­al treat­ies that are sub­ject to a ref­er­en­dum un­der Art­icles 140 para­graph 1 let­ter b and 141 para­graph 1 let­ter d of the Fed­er­al Con­sti­tu­tion;
b.
oth­er in­ter­na­tion­al treat­ies and de­crees un­der in­ter­na­tion­al law that en­act law or con­fer le­gis­lat­ive powers.8

2 The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may de­cide that treat­ies and de­crees that are not le­gis­lat­ive in their nature be pub­lished in the AS.

3 The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall de­term­ine the re­quire­ments by which treat­ies and de­crees of no more than six months in dur­a­tion and of lim­ited scope need not be pub­lished in the AS.9

8 Amended by No I of the FA of 26 Sept. 2014, in force since 1 Jan. 2016 (AS 2015 3977; BBl 2013 7057).

9 Amended by No I of the FA of 26 Sept. 2014, in force since 1 Jan. 2016 (AS 2015 3977; BBl 2013 7057).

Art. 4 Agreements between the Confederation and the cantons and between cantons 10  

The fol­low­ing shall be pub­lished in the AS:

a.
agree­ments between the Con­fed­er­a­tion and the can­tons that en­act law or con­fer le­gis­lat­ive powers;
b.
oth­er agree­ments between the Con­fed­er­a­tion and the can­tons if the Fed­er­al Coun­cil so de­cides;
c.11
Agree­ments between can­tons that have been de­clared by the Con­fed­er­a­tion to be gen­er­ally bind­ing (Art. 48a Fed­er­al Con­sti­tu­tion).

10 Amended by No I of the FA of 26 Sept. 2014, in force since 1 Jan. 2016 (AS 2015 3977; BBl 2013 7057).

11 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 26 Sept. 2014, in force since 1 Jan. 2016 (AS 2015 3977; BBl 2013 7057).

Art. 5 Publication by reference 12  

1 Texts in terms of Art­icles 2–4 which by their spe­cial nature are not suit­able for the pub­lic­a­tion in the AS shall be in­cluded in the AS on the pub­lic­a­tions plat­form simply as a title with a ref­er­ence, in par­tic­u­lar if:

a.
they con­cern only a small group of people;
b.
they are tech­nic­al in nature and only in­ten­ded for spe­cial­ists;
c.
they must be pub­lished in a format that is not suit­able for pub­lic­a­tion in the AS; or
d.
a fed­er­al act or Fed­er­al As­sembly or­din­ance re­quires pub­lic­a­tion out­side the AS.

2 Texts un­der Art­icles 2–4 that are pub­lished in an­oth­er or­gan of pub­lic­a­tion avail­able free of charge in Switzer­land shall also be in­cluded in the AS only by title with a ref­er­ence or source in that or­gan.

3 Art­icles 6–10 and 14 ap­ply.

12 Amended by No I of the FA of 26 Sept. 2014, in force since 1 Jan. 2016, in­tro­duct­ory sen­tence to para. 1 in force since 1 Ju­ly 2022 (AS 2015 3977; 2021 693; BBl 2013 7057).

Art. 6 Exceptions to the publication requirement 13  

1 Fed­er­al en­act­ments, in­ter­na­tion­al treat­ies and de­crees un­der in­ter­na­tion­al law that must be treated as con­fid­en­tial in the in­terests of Switzer­land’s in­tern­al or ex­tern­al se­cur­ity or in­ter­na­tion­al com­mit­ments shall not be pub­lished in the AS.

2 Where texts un­der para­graph 1 im­pose ob­lig­a­tions on in­di­vidu­als, only per­sons who have been giv­en no­tice of the rel­ev­ant pro­vi­sions are bound.

13 Amended by No I of the FA of 26 Sept. 2014, in force since 1 Jan. 2016 (AS 2015 3977; BBl 2013 7057).

Art. 7 Ordinary, emergency and exceptional publication 14  

1 The texts in terms of Art­icles 2–4 shall be pub­lished in the AS at least five days be­fore they come in­to force.

2 Agree­ments and de­crees un­der Art­icles 3 and 4 whose com­mence­ment date is not yet known at the time of their ap­prov­al shall be pub­lished im­me­di­ately after the an­nounce­ment of their com­mence­ment date.

3 A text shall be pub­lished by way of ex­cep­tion on the day it comes in­to force at the latest (emer­gency pub­lic­a­tion) if this is re­quired either to en­sure its ef­fect­ive­ness.

4 If the pub­lic­a­tions plat­form is not avail­able, the texts shall be pub­lished by oth­er means (ex­cep­tion­al pub­lic­a­tion).

14 Amended by No I of the FA of 26 Sept. 2014, in force since 1 Jan. 2016 (AS 2015 3977; BBl 2013 7057).

Art. 8 Legal effect of publication  

1 Leg­al ob­lig­a­tions arising from texts in terms of Art­icles 2–4 shall ap­ply as soon as the texts have been pub­lished in ac­cord­ance with the pro­vi­sions of this Sec­tion.

2 If an en­act­ment is pub­lished in the AS after com­mence­ment, ob­lig­a­tions arising there­from ap­ply from the day fol­low­ing pub­lic­a­tion, sub­ject to Art­icle 7 para­graph 3.

3 If an en­act­ment is pub­lished un­der the ex­cep­tion­al pro­ced­ure, it re­mains open to any per­son af­fected thereby to show that he or she was un­aware of the en­act­ment and des­pite tak­ing all reas­on­able care could not have been aware of it.

Art. 915  

15 Re­pealed by No I of the FA of 26 Sept. 2014, with ef­fect from 1 Jan. 2016 (AS 2015 3977; BBl 2013 7057).

Art. 10 Formal corrections  

1 The Fed­er­al Chan­cellery shall cor­rect er­rors and for­mu­la­tions in the AS that af­fect the mean­ing and do not cor­res­pond to the de­cision of the en­act­ing au­thor­ity:

a.
in fed­er­al en­act­ments, with the ex­cep­tion of Fed­er­al As­sembly en­act­ments: at its own be­hest;
b.
in in­ter­na­tion­al treat­ies and de­crees un­der in­ter­na­tion­al law: by agree­ment with the con­tract­ing part­ners.16

2 For the cor­rec­tion of Fed­er­al As­sembly en­act­ments, Art­icles 57 para­graph 1bis and 58 of the Par­lia­ment Act of 13 Decem­ber 200217 ap­plies.18

3 Er­rors in Fed­er­al As­sembly en­act­ments that arose on pub­lic­a­tion are cor­rec­ted in the AS by the Fed­er­al Chan­cellery by agree­ment with the Fed­er­al As­sembly Draft­ing Com­mit­tee.19

16 Amended by No I of the FA of 26 Sept. 2014, in force since 1 Jan. 2016 (AS 2015 3977; BBl 2013 7057).

17 SR 171.10

18 Amended by No II 1 of the FA of 15 June 2018 (Mis­cel­laneous Amend­ments of Par­lia­ment­ary Law), in force since 26 Nov. 2018 (AS 2018 3461; BBl 2017 67976865).

19 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 26 Sept. 2014, in force since 1 Jan. 2016 (AS 2015 3977; BBl 2013 7057).

Section 3 Classified Compilation of Federal Legislation

Art. 11 Content 20  

The SR is a re­vised com­pil­a­tion, ar­ranged un­der sub­ject head­ings and up­dated at reg­u­lar in­ter­vals, which con­tains:

a.
the texts pub­lished in the AS, with the ex­cep­tion of non-le­gis­lat­ive fed­er­al de­crees on the ap­prov­al of in­ter­na­tion­al treat­ies and de­crees un­der in­ter­na­tion­al law; and
b.
the can­ton­al con­sti­tu­tions.

20 Amended by No I of the FA of 26 Sept. 2014, in force since 1 Jan. 2016 (AS 2015 3977; BBl 2013 7057).

Art. 12 Informal corrections and amendments  

1 The Fed­er­al Chan­cellery shall in­form­ally cor­rect er­rors in the SR that do not change the mean­ing.

2 It shall in­form­ally amend de­tails such as de­scrip­tions of ad­min­is­trat­ive units, links, ref­er­ences or ab­bre­vi­ations in the SR.

3 For the cor­rec­tion of Fed­er­al As­sembly en­act­ments, Art­icle 58 of the Par­lia­ment Act of 13 Decem­ber 200221 ap­plies.

Section 4 Federal Gazette

Art. 13  

1 The fol­low­ing shall be pub­lished in the Fed­er­al Gaz­ette:

a.
dis­patches and drafts of the Fed­er­al Coun­cil on en­act­ments of the Fed­er­al As­sembly;
b.22
re­ports and drafts of Fed­er­al As­sembly com­mit­tees on en­act­ments of the Fed­er­al As­sembly and the re­lated Fed­er­al Coun­cil state­ments;
c.23
d.
fed­er­al de­crees on amend­ments to the Con­sti­tu­tion as well as on the ap­prov­al of in­ter­na­tion­al treat­ies in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 140 para­graph 1 let­ter b of the Fed­er­al Con­sti­tu­tion;
e.
fed­er­al acts and fed­er­al de­crees sub­ject to an op­tion­al ref­er­en­dum;
f.
simple fed­er­al de­crees that are not pub­lished in the AS in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 2 let­ter h;
fbis.24
Fed­er­al Coun­cil dir­ect­ives;
g.
fur­ther texts that must be in­cluded in ac­cord­ance with fed­er­al le­gis­la­tion.

2 In ad­di­tion, the fol­low­ing may be pub­lished in the Fed­er­al Gaz­ette:

a.
re­ports, state­ments or agree­ments of the Fed­er­al Coun­cil, Fed­er­al As­sembly com­mit­tees or the fed­er­al courts, un­less these must be pub­lished un­der para­graph 1;
b.
Fed­er­al Coun­cil de­crees and an­nounce­ments;
c.
de­crees, dir­ect­ives and an­nounce­ments from the Fed­er­al Ad­min­is­tra­tion and from or­gan­isa­tions and per­sons un­der pub­lic or private law that are as­signed ad­min­is­trat­ive du­ties but do not form part of the Fed­er­al Ad­min­is­tra­tion.25

3 If it seems ap­pro­pri­ate, the pub­lic­a­tion may be lim­ited to the title with the ref­er­ence or source (Art. 5).

4 For the cor­rec­tion of texts, Art­icle 10 ap­plies by ana­logy.

22 Amended by No I of the FA of 26 Sept. 2014, in force since 1 Jan. 2016 (AS 2015 3977; BBl 2013 7057).

23 Re­pealed by No I of the FA of 26 Sept. 2014, with ef­fect from 1 Jan. 2016 (AS 2015 3977; BBl 2013 7057).

24 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 26 Sept. 2014, in force since 1 Jan. 2016 (AS 2015 3977; BBl 2013 7057).

25 Amended by No I of the FA of 26 Sept. 2014, in force since 1 Jan. 2016 (AS 2015 3977; BBl 2013 7057).

Section 4a Other Texts published on the Publications Platform26

26 Inserted by No I of the FA of 26 Sept. 2014, in force since 1 Jan. 2016, Art. 13a para. 1 let. a in force since 1 July 2022 (AS 2015 3977; 2021 693; BBl 2013 7057).

Art. 13a  

1 The fol­low­ing texts are also pub­lished on the pub­lic­a­tions plat­form:

a.
the full ver­sions of the texts pub­lished by ref­er­ence in ac­cord­ance with Art­icles 5 para­graph 1 und 13 para­graph 3;
b.27
the doc­u­ments re­lat­ing to con­sulta­tion pro­ceed­ings un­der the Con­sulta­tion Pro­ced­ure Act of 18 March 200528;
c.
former ver­sions of fed­er­al law;
d.
trans­la­tions of of­fi­cial pub­lic­a­tions, in par­tic­u­lar those in Ro­man­sh or Eng­lish.

2 The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may provide that fur­ther texts that are re­lated to le­gis­la­tion are pub­lished on the pub­lic­a­tions plat­form.

27 Amended by No III of the FA of 26 Sept. 2014, in force since 1 April 2016 (AS 2015 3977, 2016 925; BBl 2013 70578875).

28 SR 172.061

Section 5 Common Provisions

Art. 14 Languages of published texts 29  

1 Pub­lic­a­tion is ef­fected sim­ul­tan­eously in the of­fi­cial lan­guages Ger­man, French and Itali­an. In the case of en­act­ments, the three ver­sions are equally bind­ing.

2 The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may de­cide that texts that are pub­lished by ref­er­ence in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 13a para­graph 1 let­ter a and oth­er texts in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 13a para­graph 2 will not be pub­lished in all three of­fi­cial lan­guages or in any of­fi­cial lan­guage if:30

a.
the pro­vi­sions con­tained in these texts do not dir­ectly bind the per­sons con­cerned; or
b.
the per­sons con­cerned use the texts only in their ori­gin­al lan­guage.

3 The Fed­er­al Chan­cellery may de­cide that de­crees and an­nounce­ments is­sued by the Fed­er­al Ad­min­is­tra­tion and by or­gan­isa­tions and per­sons un­der pub­lic or private law in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 13 para­graph 2 are pub­lished only in the of­fi­cial lan­guage of the per­sons con­cerned, provided these are solely of loc­al sig­ni­fic­ance.

4 The trans­la­tion of doc­u­ments re­lated to con­sulta­tion pro­ceed­ings is gov­erned by the le­gis­la­tion on the con­sulta­tion pro­ced­ure31.32

5 The pub­lic­a­tion of texts in Ro­man­sh is gov­erned by Art­icle 11 of the Lan­guages Act of 5 Oc­to­ber 200733.34

6 Texts of par­tic­u­lar im­port­ance or in­ter­na­tion­al in­terest that are pub­lished on the pub­lic­a­tions plat­form may also be pub­lished in oth­er lan­guages, in par­tic­u­lar Eng­lish.35

29 Amended by No I of the FA of 26 Sept. 2014, in force since 1 Jan. 2016 (AS 2015 3977; BBl 2013 7057).

30 Amended by No I of the FA of 26 Sept. 2014, in force since 1 Ju­ly 2022 (AS 2015 3977; 2021 693; BBl 2013 7057).

31 SR 172.061and 172.061.1

32 In­ser­ted by No III of the FA of 26 Sept. 2014, in force since 1 April 2016 (AS 2015 3977, 2016 925; BBl 2013 70578875).

33 SR 441.1

34 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 26 Sept. 2014, in force since 1 Jan. 2016 (AS 2015 3977; BBl 2013 7057).

35 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 26 Sept. 2014, in force since 1 Jan. 2016 (AS 2015 3977; BBl 2013 7057).

Art. 14a Federal Assembly enactments 36  

1 The Fed­er­al Chan­cellery shall pub­lish in the Fed­er­al Gaz­ette and in the AS Fed­er­al As­sembly en­act­ments in the three of­fi­cial lan­guages in the fi­nal ver­sion ap­proved by the Coun­cils.

2 In do­ing so, it is only au­thor­ised to add in­form­a­tion on the dead­line for re­quest­ing a ref­er­en­dum, the ex­piry of that dead­line and the entry in­to force, to com­plete miss­ing AS, BBl and SR ref­er­ences and to make format­ting changes.

36 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 26 Sept. 2014, in force since 1 Jan. 2016 (AS 2015 3977; BBl 2013 7057).

Art. 15 Authoritative version 37  

1 For fed­er­al en­act­ments, agree­ments between the Con­fed­er­a­tion and the can­tons and agree­ments between can­tons (Art. 2 and 4), the ver­sion pub­lished in the AS is au­thor­it­at­ive. If a text is pub­lished by ref­er­ence, the ver­sion to which ref­er­ence is made is au­thor­it­at­ive.

2 The ver­sion pub­lished on the pub­lic­a­tions plat­form is au­thor­it­at­ive.

3 The au­thor­it­at­ive ver­sion of in­ter­na­tion­al treat­ies and de­crees un­der in­ter­na­tion­al law is de­term­ined by the pro­vi­sions there­of.

37 Amended by No I of the FA of 26 Sept. 2014, in force since 1 Jan. 2016 (AS 2015 3977; BBl 2013 7057).

Art. 16 Printed versions 38  

1 The texts pub­lished on the pub­lic­a­tions plat­form may be ob­tained in prin­ted form.

2 The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall de­term­ine the con­di­tions by which peri­od­ic­al edi­tions of texts pub­lished on the pub­lic­a­tions plat­form are pro­duced and dis­trib­uted in prin­ted form.

3 It shall de­term­ine the min­im­um num­ber of prin­ted cop­ies of the texts pub­lished in the AS and Fed­er­al Gaz­ette that may be made avail­able, and where they shall be de­pos­ited.

38 Amended by No I of the FA of 26 Sept. 2014, in force since 1 Jan. 2016 (AS 2015 3977; BBl 2013 7057).

Art. 16a Data security 39  

The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall de­term­ine the meas­ures re­quired to guar­an­tee the au­then­ti­city, in­teg­rity and the safe­keep­ing of texts pub­lished on the pub­lic­a­tions plat­form and the smooth op­er­a­tion of the pub­lic­a­tions plat­form; in do­ing so, it shall take ac­count of the state of the art.

39 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 26 Sept. 2014, in force since 1 Jan. 2016 (AS 2015 3977; BBl 2013 7057).

Art. 16b Data protection 40  

1 Pub­lic­a­tions un­der this Act may con­tain per­son­al data; in par­tic­u­lar, they may also con­tain sens­it­ive per­son­al data in terms of Art­icle 5 let­ter c of the Data Pro­tec­tion Act of 25 Septem­ber 202041 where this is re­quired for a pub­lic­a­tion provided for in a fed­er­al act.42

2 Texts that con­tain sens­it­ive per­son­al data may not be made pub­licly avail­able on­line for longer or con­tain more in­form­a­tion than their pur­pose re­quires.

3 The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall de­term­ine any fur­ther meas­ures re­quired in or­der to en­sure the pro­tec­tion of sens­it­ive per­son­al data in on­line pub­lic­a­tions; in do­ing so, it shall take ac­count of the state of the art.

40 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 26 Sept. 2014, in force since 1 Jan. 2016 (AS 2015 3977; BBl 2013 7057).

41 SR 235.1

42 Amended by An­nex 1 No II 11 of the Data Pro­tec­tion Act of 25 Sept. 2020, in force since 1 Sept. 2023 (AS 2022 491; BBl 2017 6941).

Art. 1743  

43 Re­pealed by No I of the FA of 26 Sept. 2014, with ef­fect from 1 Jan. 2016 (AS 2015 3977; BBl 2013 7057).

Art. 18 Inspection 44  

The fol­low­ing may be in­spec­ted at the Fed­er­al Chan­cellery and at the of­fices des­ig­nated by the can­tons:

a.
the con­tent on the pub­lic­a­tions plat­form; and
b.
en­act­ments pub­lished un­der the ex­cep­tion­al pro­ced­ure that have not yet been in­cluded in the AS (Art. 7 para. 4).

44 Amended by No I of the FA of 26 Sept. 2014, in force since 1 Jan. 2016 (AS 2015 3977; BBl 2013 7057).

Art. 19 Fees 45  

1 Con­sulta­tion of the pub­lic­a­tions plat­form and in­spec­tions in terms of Art­icle 18 are free of charge.

2 The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall reg­u­late the fees for the pro­vi­sion of prin­ted texts and elec­tron­ic data un­der this Act.

45 Amended by No I of the FA of 26 Sept. 2014, in force since 1 Jan. 2016 (AS 2015 3977; BBl 2013 7057).

Art. 19a Third-party suppliers 46  

The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may make third party sup­pli­ers sub­ject to spe­cial con­di­tions, in par­tic­u­lar in re­la­tion to the use of data.

46 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 26 Sept. 2014, in force since 1 Jan. 2016 (AS 2015 3977; BBl 2013 7057).

Section 6 Final Provisions

Art. 19b Implementation 47  

1 The Fed­er­al Chan­cellery man­ages the pub­lic­a­tions plat­form.

2 It shall carry out the oth­er tasks un­der this Act un­less oth­er ad­min­is­trat­ive units are re­spons­ible.

47 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 26 Sept. 2014, in force since 1 Jan. 2016 (AS 2015 3977; BBl 2013 7057).

Art. 20 Repeal of current legislation  

The Pub­lic­a­tions Act of 21 March 198648 is re­pealed.

Art. 21 Amendment of current legislation  

The fol­low­ing fed­er­al acts are amended as fol­lows:

49

49 The amend­ments may be con­sul­ted un­der AS 20044929.

Art. 22 Referendum and commencement  

1 This Act is sub­ject to an op­tion­al ref­er­en­dum.

2 The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall de­term­ine the date on which this Act comes in­to force.

Com­mence­ment date: 1 Janu­ary 200550

50FCD of 17 Nov. 2004.

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