--- title: "\"One Does Not Simply Identify Applicable Legal Requirements\"" description: It is not easy to find applicable legal requirements. You need legaltech to assist in making legal compliance more efficient. Legal SaaS image: https://blog.libryo.com/hubfs/12-1.jpg --- [![Libryo_Green-2](https://blog.libryo.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Libryo_Green-2.png?width=2000&height=519&name=Libryo_Green-2.png "Libryo_Green-2")](https://libryo.com) - [PRODUCTS](https://libryo.com/products/) - [CUSTOM LEGAL REGISTERS](https://libryo.com/legal-registers-custom/) - [PRICING](https://libryo.com/pricing/) - [PROFESSIONAL SERVICES](https://libryo.com/libryo-professional-services/) - [LIBRYO COLLABORATE](https://libryo.com/libryo-collaborate/) - [ABOUT](https://libryo.com/about-us/) - [RESOURCES](https://libryo.com/resources/) - [BLOG](https://blog.libryo.com/) - [CASE STUDIES](https://libryo.com/case-studies/) - [CONTACT](http://libryo.com/libryo/contact/) - [PARTNERS](http://libryo.com/partners/) - [REQUEST A DEMO](https://info.libryo.com/book-a-demo) - [LOG IN](https://my.libryo.com/auth/login) # **Sky high thinkers** #### Welcome to the Libryo blog ![close](https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/2432204/AK-UI%20Builder/close-button.svg) ### Categories - [Legal compliance (124)](https://blog.libryo.com/topic/legal-compliance) - [Legaltech (124)](https://blog.libryo.com/topic/legaltech) - [Regulations, laws and requirements (105)](https://blog.libryo.com/topic/regulations-laws-and-requirements) - [Regtech (101)](https://blog.libryo.com/topic/regtech) - [Custom legal registers (97)](https://blog.libryo.com/topic/custom-legal-registers) - [Libryo news (75)](https://blog.libryo.com/topic/libryo-news) - [COVID-19 regulation updates (45)](https://blog.libryo.com/topic/covid-19-regulation-updates) - [Sustainability governance (43)](https://blog.libryo.com/topic/sustainability-governance) - [Responsible Brands (42)](https://blog.libryo.com/topic/responsible-brands) - [Law as a Service (30)](https://blog.libryo.com/topic/law-as-a-service) - [EHS Software (27)](https://blog.libryo.com/topic/ehs-software) - [ESG Solutions (18)](https://blog.libryo.com/topic/esg-solutions) - [ISO standards (12)](https://blog.libryo.com/topic/iso-standards) - [AI (2)](https://blog.libryo.com/topic/ai) - [On the ground series (2)](https://blog.libryo.com/topic/on-the-ground-series) ### Subscribe to Email Updates ### Popular Stories [Is it EHS, SHE, HSE, HSSE, SHEQ or OHS and what’s the difference?](https://blog.libryo.com/is-it-ehs-she-hse-hsse-sheq-or-ohs-and-whats-the-difference) Mar 26, 2021 [What is AI Slop and How to Avoid It?](https://blog.libryo.com/what-is-ai-slop-and-how-to-avoid-it) Jan 17, 2025 [101 Guide to the Latest Sustainability Regulations and Standards](https://blog.libryo.com/101-guide-to-the-latest-sustainability-regulations-and-standards) Apr 14, 2025 [5 Simple Ideas For Your Company To Reduce its Environmental Impact](https://blog.libryo.com/5-simple-ideas-for-your-company-to-reduce-its-environmental-impact) Apr 25, 2023 [ISO 14001:2026 Legal Register & Compliance Changes](https://blog.libryo.com/iso-140012026-legal-register-compliance-changes) May 28, 2026 Categories | Subscribe | Populars Welcome to Libryo’s Sky high thinkers blog, where thoughts on legaltech, sustainability, law, compliance and technology converge. Filter by topic or popular reads and share your thoughts with us and others. If you have a topic that you’d like to see covered, drop us an email: [info@libryo.com](mailto:info@libryo.com) Stay in the know by receiving monthly email updates directly into your inbox. **[SUBSCRIBE TO OUR BLOG](https://blog.libryo.com/legal-registers-series-one-does-not-simply-identify-applicable-legal-requirements-part-1#subscribe)** - - - # "One Does Not Simply Identify Applicable Legal Requirements" Written by Garth Watson on January 20, 2017 If you've ever been on the hunt for a legal register you'll probably have come across the certain aspects of: - Identifing the applicable legal requirements - Keeping up to date with changes in legislation and regulation - Accessing supporting guidance documents - Linking legal requirements to risk assessments In this series, we "look under the hood" at these aspects of legal registers. In a previous posts we've answered the question: ["what is a Legal Register"](https://blog.libryo.com/what-is-a-legal-register)? We've had a look at [the problem of the "as amended curse" and the need for consolidated, up to date legislation.](https://blog.libryo.com/what-is-consolidated-legislation-why-does-it-matter) So, let's dive in and have a look at the first aspect.. ## Identify the applicable legal requirements This one is super interesting. To summarise the "as amended curse", If you don't have access to consolidated, up to date, legislation you will struggle to find out what the law actually says, and instead of being able to do your job, you'll be doing the job of a legal librarian or lawyer in figuring out the starting point. To have a fighting chance of being able to identify applicable legal requirements, you must have access to consolidated up to date legislation or use a service provider who has such access. ## Be sure to identify the sections, not just the Acts & regulations etc. The objective of identifying relevant legal requirements is so companies and their employees can know, in simple terms, what the law requires of them. Extracting the simple legal obligations from the large, ever changing body of regulation is much more easily said than done. Step one is to narrow down the total number of legal instruments on the statute books to those that contain at least one legal obligation that applies to at least one of your operations. This narrowed down list is what some refer to as a legal register. This task though, is a little more complicated than it would appear at first glance. In order to be sure that you have made sure you have all law, you cannot just rely on reading the titles of the statutory instruments. You will actually have to read every single section of every single Act. If you are responsible for a certain legal domain, for example environmental legal compliance, this task is not easier. This is because there are sneaky sections of law that are environmental in nature, but are hidden in the deep recesses of statutory instruments that are not obviously environmental in nature, either in title or in description. Step two of achieving the objective of extracting obligations from the list of applicable statutory instruments is to extract the sections and make them available in a simply accessible format, through integration with a management system, to employees. Of any given statutory instrument that may apply to one or more of your company's operations, (and therefor be on your legal register) only a small fraction of the sections per instrument will be directly applicable. It's not of much use to you, or your company to say *Regulation x of 1995* applies to us. The question is, which sections apply of the regulation apply, and what do they *mean*, for your company's operations, and ultimately, what must you **do** to comply? It's one thing to try to figure out which statutory instruments may apply, but it is an altogether different and much more time consuming exercise to figure out, and find which sections of those regulations apply to your company's operations. Your company's legal obligations are obscured in a vast amount of legalese and code that is better navigated by a legal librarian, lawyer or LegalTech platform. ## Diverse operations and geographies compound the problem If you manage the legal compliance for a company group or a company with diverse operations, the applicable legal instruments, and the applicable legal sections within those legal instruments will vary from operation to operation based on the nature of the operations and the locations of the different operation. This complexity is actually too much to be handled in a manual, non-centralised manner. Having a favourites folder or a separate legal register on an online platform that has access to all law, including amendment Acts or a legal register for each operation that is derived from Excel may help you to pass your management system standard audits, but this will be a very time intensive process and the the chance of having missed out on applicable legal sections, which may have legal liability attached is simply too high. Most legal registers on the market today are "one size fits all" and rely on you to tailor them and do all of the work set out above. When it comes to legal liability, that is a major risk and one that should not be taken lightly, it should be appropriately handled through the use of the best LegalTech and legally trained compliance professionals together. To be frank, using a typical legal register approach will end up being a lot more costly to you and your company, both in time and money. The cost of lost working hours and possible liability will exceed the saving you will make using a typical "legal register" method to legal compliance. In the next post we'll have a look at how to ["Keep up to date with changes in legislation and regulation"](https://blog.libryo.com/legal-registers-series-part-2-how-to-spot-the-difference-between-up-to-date-and-accurately-up-to-date) and dive a little deeper to understand what to look out for when it comes to this.  [![REQUEST A DEMO](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/2566833/42b8b17b-3cc0-4f5a-8300-82e96669a51d.png)](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/2566833/42b8b17b-3cc0-4f5a-8300-82e96669a51d)     Find out [why Libryo Streams® have made legal registers obsolete](https://blog.libryo.com/why-libryo-streams-have-made-legal-registers-obsolete). #### More Info - [Sitemap](https://libryo.com/page-sitemap.xml) - [FAQ](https://libryo.com/faq/) - [Book a demo](https://info.libryo.com/book-a-demo) - [Libryo Collaborate](https://libryo.com/libryo-collaborate/) - [Careers](https://libryo.com/about-us/#careers) #### Get in touch [![envelope-150x150](https://blog.libryo.com/hs-fs/hubfs/envelope-150x150.png?width=25&height=25&name=envelope-150x150.png)  LEAVE MESSAGE](http://libryo.com/contact/) [![phone-150x150](https://blog.libryo.com/hs-fs/hubfs/phone-150x150.png?width=25&height=25&name=phone-150x150.png)  CONTACT](http://libryo.com/contact/) [![linkedinew-150x150](https://blog.libryo.com/hs-fs/hubfs/linkedinew-150x150.png?width=25&height=25&name=linkedinew-150x150.png)](https://www.linkedin.com/company/libryo/)           © Copyright 2024 ERM Libryo Ltd | [Privacy Policy](http://libryo.com/privacy-policy/) | [Terms](http://libryo.com/terms/) \[fa icon="chevron-up"\]Back to top