Introduction

• Author: Hoffmann, Tania
• Pages: 10-11

10

INTRODUCTION

The national legal system

Luxembourg is a unitary and indivisible state. It is a constitutional monarchy, in which the

Grand Duke has only very limited powers, as conferred by the Constitution.

The Government or members of Parliament propose pieces of legislation. Luxembourg has

a unicameral Parliament, the Chambre des Députés, which votes on draft bills. A statement

of grounds originally accompanies these draft bills.

All bills must be submitted to the Council of State (Conseil d’Etat) for its opinion, as well

as to the professional chambers. For a bill to be passed, the Council of State may exempt

the Parliament from the second constitutional vote. If the Council of State formally opposes

the draft, a second vote must be taken in Parliament to pass the bill. This vote cannot be

held less than three months after the refusal of the Council of State to exempt the

Parliament from the second vote.

Secondary legislation is exercised by grand ducal regulations. In practice, a regulation is a

mechanism to provide further details and/or procedures for the implementation of a

particular law and is only used in relation to areas that are not reserved to the legislative

power by the Constitution. The Government, through the minister in charge of the area

concerned, is responsible for drafting the regulation, which is submitted to the Council of

State for its opinion, adopted by Parliament and then signed by the Grand Duke, who does

not have the power to oppose it.

There are a few basic codes of law, including the Civil Code (dating from the times of

Napoleon Bonaparte, at the beginning of the 19th century, when Luxembourg belonged to

France), the Criminal Code, the Code of Commerce, the new Code of Civil Procedure (which

entered into force on 16 September 1998), the Code of Criminal Procedure, the Code of

Social Security and the Labour Code (which was enacted in 2006). The Labour Code is

basically a compilation of former texts, with a new numbering of paragraphs.

In the public sector, there is a compilation of laws relating to the administration called the

Administrative Code, in which the general statute of civil servants sets out the rules relating

to the relationship between civil servants and the administration, including the central

Government administration and the local administration, mainly the municipalities (known

as communes).

Some laws apply both to the private sector and the public sector, such as the La w of 8

December 1981 on equality of treatment between men and women in the field of

employment, which has been incorporated formally into the Labour Code.

List of main legislation transposing and implementing the directives

Law of 28 November 20061 (general discrimination law). This law covers the entire scope

of both directives excepting public employment, which is covered by the public sector law.

1 Law of 28 November 2006 (general discrimination law):

1. ‘transposing Council Directive 2000/43/EC of 29 June 2000 implementing the principle of equal

treatment between persons irrespective of racial or ethnic origin;

2. transposing Council Directive 2000/78/ EC of the Council of 27 November 2000 establishing a general

framework for equal treatment in employment and occupation;

3. amending the Labour Code and introducing in Book II a new title V on equality of treatment in the area

of employment and work;

4. amending articles 454 and 455 of the Criminal Code;

5. amending the Law of 12 September 2003 on disabled persons.’

http://www.legilux.public.lu/eli/etat/leg/loi/2006/11/28/n1/jo.