The Lower House Approved Bill on the Argentine Legal Digest

On November 27, 2013, the Lower House approved the bill concerning the Argentine Legal Digest (the “ALD”) which seeks to identify and list all national laws currently in force, as well as laws no longer in force and regulations enacted by supranational or intergovernmental bodies of which Argentina is a member.
The initiative, which was submitted to the Congress by the National Executive Branch (the “PEN”, after its Spanish acronym), must now be considered by the Senate. The PEN has included the ALD bill within the topics to be considered by the Congress during the 2013 extraordinary sessions.
1.  Background
In 1998 Law No. 24,967 laid down the principles and procedures to create a consolidated text of all Argentine laws in force by means of the preparation and approval of the ALD.
Law No. 24,967 provided that the ALD should contain: (i) all Argentine general laws in force and their implementing regulations; (ii) an annex with the “Historical Law” or positive law no longer in force (repealed laws or in “disuse”); and (iii) an annex with regulations enacted by supranational or intergovernmental bodies of which Argentina is a member.
It was also provided that the ALD should be elaborated by the PEN. For this purpose, the PEN appointed a Committee of Jurists. The term that the Committee of Jurists had to carry out this assignment was within a year. This term could be extended by the PEN for another year.
Law No. 24,967 provided that (i) all the laws and regulations that were not included in the ALD as legislation “in force” would be deemed repealed and that (ii) the “Historical Law” would have the same value as the general principles of law according to section 16 of the Civil Code.
The task of the Commission of Jurists lasted longer than expected and finally, in July 2011, the PEN submitted the bill on the ALD (the “PEN Bill”) to the Congress.
The PEN Bill detected 3,134 general regulations in force (with hierarchy of law) of a total of 32,207 regulations reviewed. It was informed by the PEN that the review and classification of implementing regulations was still pending.
The PEN Bill was referred to the Bicameral Committee for Monitoring and Coordination of the Argentine Legal Digest created by Law No. 24,967 (the “Bicameral Committee”).
The Bicameral Committee introduced several amendments to the PEN Bill and further included those laws passed after the submission of the PEN Bill. On May 8, 2013, the Bicameral Committee gave a favorable opinion (the “Opinion”) and the PEN Bill was referred to the Lower House.
Towards the end of the current legislative term, the Lower House approved the PEN Bill without including any amendments to the Opinion.
2. The PEN Bill – Main Provisions
The text voted favorably by the Lower House provides, in the first place, the approval of the ALD, updated to March 31, 2013.
The following sections of the PEN Bill establish that: (i) the laws included in Annex I be declared “in force”; (ii) the laws included in Annex II be declared “no longer in force”; and (iii) the reference to rules approved by supranational or intergovernmental bodies of which Argentina is a member, listed in Annex III, be approved.
As set forth in the PEN Bill, the laws included in the ALD shall be identified with a letter according to the area of law to which they correspond: ADM) Administrative Law; ACU) Culture, Science and Technology; AED) Education; ASA) Public Health; ASE) Security; ASO) Social Action and Development; B) Customs; C) Aeronautical - Space; D) Banking, Monetary and Financial; E) Civil; F) Commercial; G) Community; H) Constitutional; I) Communications; J) Diplomatic and Consular; K) Economic; L) Tax M) Industrial; N) Private International Law O) Public International Law; P) Labor; Q) Environment; R) Military; S) Criminal; T) Politic; U) Civil and Commercial Procedure; V) Criminal Procedure; W) Public Provincial and Municipal; X) Natural Resources; Y) Social Security; Z) Transportation and Insurance.
The PEN Bill approved by the Lower House also provides for the setting up of a Permanent Bicameral Committee of the ALD (the “New Bicameral Committee”) which will be the successor of the aforementioned Bicameral Committee.
The New Bicameral Committee will be in charge of, among other tasks, updating the ALD, which will be done with the technical assistance of the Parliamentary Information Direction of the Congress. The task of updating the ALD involves the recasting into one text of all analogous rules on a same subject and the approval of consolidated texts on subjects several times regulated or amended.
The amendments that will be introduced by the New Bicameral Committee must not alter the spirit of the relevant laws. The updates of the ALD shall be approved by both Houses of Congress.
Moreover, the PEN Bill approved by the Lower House empowers the PEN to determine the specific enforcement authority of different laws. It is not clear whether this power may be exercised only with respect to laws that do not provide for an enforcement authority or if the PEN is also empowered to change already determined and existing enforcement authorities provided for in the corresponding laws.
It is also provided that, if the ALD is approved, the New Bicameral Committee will receive queries and observations (regarding the framework, consolidation of the text and validity of rules) for a period of 180 days as from the approval of the ALD, and will adopt a resolution in this regard.
These resolutions of the New Bicameral Committee will be informed to both Houses of Congress and no other ratification procedure is required. Once this 180-day term has expired and the New Bicameral Committee has ruled on the observations and queries made in relation to the ALD, the official publication of the definitive version of the ALD will be ordered.
Finally, the PEN Bill provides for the repeal of Law No. 20,004 (which empowers the PEN to enact consolidated texts of laws, without amending their original text) and the previously mentioned Law No. 24,967.
The repeal of Law No. 24,967 implies that its provisions —which, as mentioned above, provided that “Historical Law” would be considered as a general principle of law— would no longer be in force.
3.  Final comment
Looking ahead to the possible approval of the ALD by the Congress, it will be important to review and analyze the final list of the laws declared “in force” (and their corresponding consolidated texts) carefully, in order to detect possible inconsistencies or omissions in the legislation concerning specific areas and, where necessary, take the appropriate course of action for each case.