Directory of Legislation in Force under review, January 2004

The two volume Directory of Legislation in Force has been published twice yearly in print since 1980. The data is extracted from the CELEX database and by the time it is published it is essentially already out of date. With the very poor subject headings of the alphabetical index, it has never provided a straightforward access route for subject enquiries. The analytical structure section of Volume 1 offered a more helpful breakdown to identify legislation on a topic. In more recent times the Directory has been available online on the EUR-Lex site at http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/en/lif/index.html where it offers the structured access approach to EU legislation and can more easily be updated. Up until 2001 the Directory was automatically supplied with all subscriptions to the Official Journal. Subsequently it has only been sent on request. As a result the circulation figures have dropped to a tenth of the c15,000 copies previously published. In the light of the pending integration of EUR-Lex and CELEX and the increasing move towards online access to legislation, a working group has been established to look at how the Directory could be adapted in order to fit current needs more effectively. The group is due to report back by February 2004.