New Law Library of Congress Report on Lobbying Disclosure Laws

The Law Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. recently released a new report on Lobbying Disclosure Laws that examines laws governing the registration of lobbyists and foreign agents in France, Germany, and the United Kingdom:

"Current French law does not require lobbyists to register, but France recently enacted a law requiring registration that will go into effect on July 1, 2017. It will require lobbyists to provide information that will become publicly available, including the identity of organizations with interests related to the registrant’s representation."

"The UK enacted a lobbying registration law in 2014 that requires lobbyists whose annual lobbying business reaches a certain threshold to disclose specified information. The information provided is made available in a public register. Among the information that must be disclosed is the identity of lobbyists’ clients."

"Germany does not have a mandatory register for lobbyists at the federal level, although it does have a voluntary register. (One state, Saxony-Anhalt, has a mandatory register for lobbyists at the state parliament.) There have been initiatives supporting a mandatory register at the federal level, and the Social Democratic Party has submitted draft legislation to establish one."

In 2011, the Library of Parliament in Ottawa published a research publication on the Canadian situation entitled The Federal Lobbying System: The Lobbying Act and the Lobbyists’ Code of Conduct.

Reports written by the Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying of Canada are published on the Office website.