I. History of origins

1 Paragraphs 1 and 2 of the transitional provisions were already introduced when the PRA was enacted in 1976 and have not been amended since.

2 However, the provisions have lost their meaning over time. Paragraphs 3 and 4 were already repealed in 2008; they fell victim to a "de-cluttering of federal law". Paragraph 3 concerned the popular initiative of the Social Democratic Party on freedom of the press from 1935, which the authorities had delayed for years for political reasons. The initiators could not formally withdraw the initiative after the Second World War due to the lack of a withdrawal clause, which is why it was written off by law. Paragraph 4 was inserted in 1978 and concerned an adjustment of the distribution of seats in the National Council after the foundation of the Canton of Jura.

3 In the case of paras. 1 and 2, the Federal Council was probably not sure whether these provisions could also have been repealed during the formal revision of federal law.

II. Commentary on the text of the provision

4 Art. 90 of the PRA is a classic transitional provision that deals with the temporal applicability of the newly introduced provisions. Elections and votes that took place before the entry into force of the PRA, as well as referenda and popular initiatives that were submitted beforehand, were to be assessed entirely according to the previous law. This was to prevent the applicable law from changing in the course of such proceedings.

5 Para. 2 additionally specified this transitional regulation with regard to the signature lists to be submitted for referendums and popular initiatives. Here the PRA was based on the collection period for popular initiatives, which was already 18 months from publication in the Federal Gazette when the PRA was enacted in 1976. Both paragraphs, which are still in force today, have lost their original meaning.

Bibliography

Häfelin Ulrich/Müller Georg/Uhlmann Felix, Allgemeines Verwaltungsrecht, 8. Aufl., Zürich et al. 2020.

Seferovic Goran, Volksinitiative zwischen Recht und Politik: Die staatsrechtliche Praxis der Volksinitiative in der Schweiz, den USA und Deutschland, Bern 2018.

Uhlmann Felix, Intertemporales Recht aus dem Blickwinkel der Rechtsetzungslehre, in: Uhlmann Felix (Hrsg.), Intertemporales Recht aus dem Blickwinkel der Rechtsetzungslehre und des Verwaltungsrechts, 13. Jahrestagung des Zentrums für Rechtsetzungslehre, Zürich et al. 2014, S. 33–51.