Council of State

Where to find an advisory opinion ?

General rule

The advisory opinions of the Legislation section are not published on this website.

According to the current status of legislation advisory opinions may not be made public. They remain confidential. The Minister who asks for the opinion decides on the expedience of furnishing it to third paries. Several bills have been introduced in Parliament to solve this problem.

Exceptions

There are two exceptions to the above mentioned general rule:

Advisory opinions on pre-draft Acts, Decrees or Ordinances emanating from the government have to be appended to the explanatory statement of the draft at the time of its introduction in parliament. They are published in the parliamentary documents of the assembly concerned. The same goes for advisory opinions given to the presidents of the parliamentary assemblies.
When a statutory ruling is preceded by a report to the King or the Government, the advisory opinion and the report have to be published in the official gazette.

For further details, please consult the French or Dutch version of this page.