Bulgarian law in English
I. Content
The APIS - Sofita Law Project is an achievement of the joint efforts of the two companies, in which the wide experience and the proven capabilities of APIS and SOFITA have been incorporated. It offers the users a high quality and user-friendly appliance giving them an easy and quick access to the needed Bulgarian legislative acts and international treaties both in the Bulgarian and in the English languages.
The information in the product "APIS - Sofita Law" is structured in two main sections:
- Bulgarian Law in English
- International Legal Acts
The Bulgarian Law in English section itself contains:
- Directory by subject matter:
- State (Constitutional) Law
- Administrative Law
- Judicial System
- Education, Science and Culture
- Health Care, Environment
- Financial Law
- Economic Law
- Customs Treatment
- Labour and Social-Security Law
- Civil Law
- Statutory Instrument Types
- Constitution
- Codes
- Acts
- Regulations
- Ordinances
- Miscellaneous
- Repealed Instruments
At present the Product encompasses:
- the Bulgarian and English version of all Bulgarian codes and acts (excluding the acts for amendment and ratification), regulations for application of the acts and other by-laws
- international legal acts – in their original English (more than 1340 in number) and Bulgarian (promulgated in State Gazette) versions.
The translations and the corresponding updates of Bulgarian legislative acts in English, are carried out in short terms, depending on their size. Updates to the revised English version are carried out within 14 days after the promulgation of the revisions in the State Gazette.
In case of enactment of new legislative act the English version will be included and shall become accessible in the system not later than 20 days after the promulgation, except in case of translation of some very large normative texts (e.g. codes) when the translation may take a longer period of time.
II. History
SOFITA is Bulgaria’s first private agency specializing in translation and interpretation services. Founded in 1989, SOFITA has been always entrusted with the responsibility to ensure flawless interpretation at numerous high-level fora and conventions.
The firm has been awarded several EU contracts to provide interpretation and translation services for PHARE projects implemented at the General Customs Directorate, the Bulgarian Telecom, the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, etc. SOFITA was entrusted with translating the European Commission’s Questionnaire and the Bulgarian Government’s responses in connection with this country’s application to join the European Union, the Final Act Embodying the Results of the Uruguay Round of Multilateral Trade Negotiations, as well as the translation of the European Commission’s opinion on Bulgaria’s EU membership application.
SOFITA is also on the European Commission’s list as a subcontractor for Bulgarian translations.
APIS is one of the first Bulgarian private companies, specialised in the design, development and maintenance of information retrieval systems with large databases and provision of information services.
The firm was established in September 1989 and has undergone several transformations, started with trading of computer hardware and quickly concentrating on information technologies and database management systems. APIS began publishing a series of legal books as well as other law publications. In 1993 the first computerised legal information system was launched.
Presently APIS' customers account to about 3500 companies and organisations, including all ministries, all Bulgarian banks, almost all state agencies, more than 80% of the bodies of the judiciary system and more than a 70% of the local government bodies.
Apart from its permanent staff, APIS has access to a wide variety of experts (more than 100) like lawyers, linguists, IT experts, financial advisors etc. who are working for the company as consultants or part-time employees. In addition more than 70 regional representatives of APIS provide sales and customer support.