Forum: ell.stackexchange.com
Tags: <word-request><legalese>
Title: What is the word for a policy taking effect?
Question: Usually a policy will go through different stages: making a draft, being revised, being approved by the government, and then taking effect.  Is there a single word for "taking effect" of a policy?  For example,   I was born shortly before the introduction/enaction/beginning of some policy.   Thanks!

Answers:
sents: text: The common phrase is go into effect : I was born shortly before the Snail Rights Act went into effect .
text: Of course, that's an invented example.
text: Let's look at some real examples from COCA : In June 2002, the McCain-Feingold Act went into effect , banning federal party committees from raising "soft money" donations from labor unions and corporations outside the scope of federal campaign finance law.
text: Texas Senate Bill 1107, which went into effect Jan. 1, amended a state law to require proof of bacterial meningitis vaccination for new students younger than the age of 30 attending college for the first time.
text: At issue is whether the penalty people will pay for refusing to buy insurance amounts to a tax.
text: If it does, the argument goes the court can't hear the case until someone actually pays the tax, which won't happen until 2015 after that part of the law goes into effect .
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/230/snailplane
score: 5
sents: text: A single word for a policy being in effect is simply either of the verbs "to start" or "to begin".
text: The new policy { starts | begins } on Jan 1, 2015.
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/197/Kaz
score: 5
sents: text: The exact context may make a difference, but on average I think the most common term would be... implementation - the realization of an application, or execution of a plan, idea, model, design, specification, standard, algorithm, or policy.
text: It's a particularly common usage in computer science and the IT industry, but it's also perfectly suitable in the context of government policies, etc.
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/126/FumbleFingers Reinstate Monica
score: 4
sents: text: I would use "enter into force", which is a common (legal) term for the point at which a decided-upon norm becomes enforceable against violators.
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/3778/K.A.Monica
score: 3
sents: text: Another way to say that a policy went into effect (using @snailplane's language) is to use the phrase "effective date": The effective date of this policy is June 1, 2014.
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/3705/godel9
score: 3
sents: text: I'm pretty sure I've heard the term 'rollout' used to indicate the time a policy is to become effective.
text: One example can be found in the Washington Times here.
text: The article is titled "Planned rollout of new D.C. cameras hits a snag" and talks about the cameras not issuing live tickets starting on Monday as planned as some cameras haven't been issuing 'warning' tickets for a full 30 days.
text: In that context, the writer clearly is referring to the date the cameras begin issuing 'real' tickets as the 'rollout' date.
text: TFD says: roll·out ( n .) 1.
text: The inauguration or initial public exhibition of a new product, service, or policy
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/3598/MrWonderful
score: 2
sents: text: I think you are confusing two very different things, policy and law .
text: A law is drafted by parties who have an interest in its content.
text: If a constitutionally (and politically) competent legislator can be persuaded to bring it forward, the law is proposed to whatever body is constitutionally charged with legislation.
text: That body considers the law, debates and often amends its provisions, and ultimately (there may be further constitutional hoops to jump through) enacts it.
text: Upon enactment, the law takes effect: becomes binding upon all citizens and corporations which fall under its provisions.
text: It now falls to the executive and judicial authorities (supposing these to be entities distinct from the legislature) to implement the law: to put it into practical effect through public exercise of the public powers these authorities wield.
text: A policy need undergo none of these events, because a policy is not a law ; it is merely a principle adopted by some entity as an appropriate guide to its subsequent actions.
text: A policy may be embodied in a written statement, or it may be an entirely tacit and even unconscious assumption.
text: It may be published and trumpeted, or maintained surreptitiously.
text: It requires no formal enactment beyond the assent of those who agree to be governed by it, it is binding upon no-one at all (including those who adopt it), and it cannot be enforced or implemented except by extra-constitutional means, taking effect on whatever occasion, to whatever extent, and by whatever means, its adopters choose.
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/32/StoneyB on hiatus
score: 1

Summary of the answers:
Start, begin, enter into force, effective date, rollout or go into effect may be used in this context.
Start, begin, enter into force, go into effect, rollout are all options.