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allmän handling

English translation: public document

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)
Swedish term or phrase:allmän handling
English translation:public document
Entered by: Larissa Ekonoja

13:14 Apr 13, 2005
Swedish to English translations [PRO]
Bus/Financial - Business/Commerce (general) / Proposal/tender
Swedish term or phrase: allmän handling
Context: Anbudet blir allmän handling, men ej offentlig handling, när anbuden öppnats.

This is from a tender request, paragraph covering sekretess.

About allmän handling under Swedish law:
Alla handlingar som upprättats eller är tillgängliga hos en statlig eller kommunal myndighet, t ex genom att de inkommit till myndigheten är allmänna handlingar. Det kan vara allt ifrån skriftliga dokument, bandinspelningar och dataregister och olika sammanställningar som enkelt går att framställa ur olika register genom en rutinbetonad åtgärd.Allmänna handlingar är offentliga om de inte uttryckligen är hemliga enligt sekretesslagen.(se även offentlig handling och hemlig handling)

Basically in this tender request they are stating that tenders will not be public (as would generally happen under Sweden's sekretesslag) but instead will be classified until the tender is awarded. The tender proposals are coming into a government agency (hence allmänna handlingar). They are however not official documents, and not public either....

Here's a little more info:
A change of terminology was proposed concerning the regulation of Chapter 2 of the Freedom of the Press Act. More precisely, instead of using the central concept "public document" ("allmän handling") the expression "public data" ("allmän uppgift") has been introduced. This was motivated mostly by the fact that this concept is believed to be technically neutral and that the Secrecy Act (from 1980) is already based upon it.

However, public is not really the correct word. For instance, a document you send to the university regarding a grade is 'allmän' but I would not consider this a public document, nor official.

As far as I can tell (with the help of a lawyer also) there's no good english term for allmän handling, so I think this needs a rewrite..

Does anyone have experience with this in this context?
Larissa Ekonoja
Sweden
Local time: 11:14
public document
Explanation:
Difficult one! Would it not be possible to say 'public document (in the sense of a document concerning the public) but not an openly publicised/a publicised document' (in the sense that information has not yet been generally revealed to the public)? I'm not sure how else you could get around it.
Hope you find my reasoning useful.
Selected response from:

Helen Johnson
United Kingdom
Local time: 10:14
Grading comment
Hi all, and thanks for the comments. This is a very tricky situation, but I chose to write more or less as Helen specified here, that is, public documents but not publicly accessible. In the end I called a British lawyer who said that a document coming from the government can be considered 'official' but tht kind of weight can not be placed on a document simply received by a government office.


4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
5 +3public document
Mats Wiman
3 +3official document
ohemulen
3public document
Helen Johnson


  

Answers


52 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 5/5 peer agreement (net): +3
allmän handling
public document


Explanation:
;-)

Mats Wiman
Sweden
Local time: 11:14
Works in field
Native speaker of: Native in SwedishSwedish
PRO pts in category: 37

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Sven Petersson
6 mins
agree  Karen Veldhuis
1 hr
agree  Helen Johnson
2 hrs
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)

10 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5 peer agreement (net): +3
allmän handling
official document


Explanation:
Could you use official document in this case? I agree that "public" has a connotation of being available upon request, whereas official would simply indicate that a document has been entered into the archives/registry of a public institution.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 1 hr 10 mins (2005-04-13 14:24:24 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Official document
(allmän handling)
A document is classified as public if it has been submitted to, was drawn up by or is in the keeping of a public authority. The principle of public access states that all official documents are public and, unless classified as secret, must be made available to all who wish to read them. See also principle of public access and secrecy.
http://www.sweden.gov.se/sb/d/2979/m/wai#O

(No reference to public documents in other contexts on that site.)


--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 2 hrs 5 mins (2005-04-13 15:19:27 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

You will also find allmän handling translated as official document in Ordlista för domstolsväsendet, http://www.dom.se/dom/DVhemsida/Domstolsvasendet/ordlista.pd...

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 2 hrs 10 mins (2005-04-13 15:24:28 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Följande utdrag ur Karl-Erik Tallmos artikel \"Den personliga uppgiften - offentlig, uthängd eller skyddad?\" är kanske något att gå efter. http://www.nisus.se/archive/pul_ny.html

\"För det andra är det bara svenskan som har uttrycket allmän handling. I (EU-)direktivets engelska version står det \"public access to official documents\", och franskan har \"documents adminstratifs\". När uttrycket översätts, översätts det samtidigt till en helt annan rättslig tradition, där sekretess är grundregeln, inte offentlighet.\"

ohemulen
France
Local time: 11:14
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: Native in SwedishSwedish, Native in FinnishFinnish

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Rosica Dimitrova
20 hrs
  -> Hon tackar.
agree  lena blondel: allman handling kan vara "offentlig" eller "hemlig".http://www.forsakringskassan.se/omfk/offentlig/allm_handl/?p...
2 days 11 hrs
agree  YankeeDude: Helt rätt. För att en handling skall vara offentlig (public document) krävs (1) att den är en allmän handling och (2) att den inte är sekretessbelagd. Till exempel är en sjukhusjournal en allmän handling men icke en offentlig handling.
4046 days
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3 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5
allmän handling
public document


Explanation:
Difficult one! Would it not be possible to say 'public document (in the sense of a document concerning the public) but not an openly publicised/a publicised document' (in the sense that information has not yet been generally revealed to the public)? I'm not sure how else you could get around it.
Hope you find my reasoning useful.

Helen Johnson
United Kingdom
Local time: 10:14
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 7
Grading comment
Hi all, and thanks for the comments. This is a very tricky situation, but I chose to write more or less as Helen specified here, that is, public documents but not publicly accessible. In the end I called a British lawyer who said that a document coming from the government can be considered 'official' but tht kind of weight can not be placed on a document simply received by a government office.

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