Swiss law is a set of rules which constitutes the law in Switzerland.
There is a hierarchy of political levels which reflects the legal and constitutional character of Switzerland.
The Federal law (German: Bundesrecht, French: Droit fédéral, Italian: Diritto federale) consist of the following parts:
According to the current Federal Constitution (SR 101 Art. 1, 3) and the principle of subsidiarity (Switzerland) (SR 101 Art. 5a) and the Title 3 Confederation, Cantons and Communes (SR 101), the Cantons of Switzerland "are sovereign except to the extent that their sovereignty is limited by the Federal Constitution. They exercise all rights that are not vested in the Confederation" and "the principle of subsidiarity must be observed in the allocation and performance of state tasks".
The Internal law (German: Landesrecht, French: Droit interne, Italian: Diritto interno, Romansh: Dretg naziunal) consists of the following parts:
Some major aspects are:
The federal government publishes legal instruments in three principal official publications:
All three publications are issued in the three official languages of Switzerland: German, French and Italian. All three language editions are equally valid. They are published by the Federal Chancellery of Switzerland in the form of weekly supplements to loose leaf binders. Since 1999, they are also made available on the Internet in PDF format (as well as HTML in the case of the SR/RS).