Recasting of legislation

The recasting of legislation means the adoption of a new legal act, when an amendment is made to a basic instrument. The result is a single, legally binding act incorporating the initial legal act and any amendments to it. This new act passes through the entire legislative process and repeals and replaces all the acts being recast.

Unlike codification, it involves new substantive changes, as amendments are made to the original act.

The rules regarding the use of the recasting technique for legal acts are laid down in the 2001 interinstitutional agreement on the subject. It sets in place special procedures that enable the legislative authority to concentrate its attention on those parts of the legislative proposal which are new.

Recasting can be:

vertical where one original act and its amendments are incorporated in a single new act;
horizontal where two or more original acts covering related subjects — and the amendments to them — are incorporated in a single new act.