TOOLS AND TECHNOLOGY FOR LAWYERS | ESTONIA

As of yesterday, the web page of the Estonian Official Gazette (Riigi Tataja) contains the English translations of all Estonian acts currently in force, a number of bylaws, as well as acts which are no longer applied.

The translations are available for consolidated texts and are published as unofficial documents. This means that they do not have legal effect, so one cannot rely on them in judicial or any other official proceedings. For that purpose the only relevant versions of the laws are the ones in Estonian.

The Estonian government entered into the very ambitious translation project to acquaint the world with the Estonian legal system and to ease professional and business interaction, as elaborated by Maria-Elisa Tuulik, the spokeswoman for the Estonian Ministry of Justice. The translation process lasted four years and the translators involved were under guidance of the Ministry of Justice. The government plans to continue the translation project in the future as well, aiming to keep the translations of the currently applicable laws up to date, as well as to translate all new laws into English.

The English versions of the laws can be accessed here.