The Rule
Update – 02 July 2026
The Chair of the Council General International Statutes Committee has informed the National Council CEO that amendments to The Rule Part II that passed during the General Assembly, convened in Lisbon in mid-June 2026, need to be reviewed and incorporated into the current text of the Statutes before being made available more broadly. Due to the complexity of needing the text translated into multiple languages and confirming accuracy across all four languages, these tasks won’t be completed until approximately the end of August 2026.
The National Council CEO anticipates the English version will be completed first. When Australia is advised of these amendments, they will be incorporated into the online version of The Rule. Once the French, Spanish and Portuguese translations are completed and signed off against the English version, then National Council will be confident that the print version of the 8th edition of The Rule (made up of Parts I, II and III) for Australia will go to print.
Based on this delay, it is now hoped the print version will be distributed by early September barring any hold-ups in the translation phase of Part II amendments. A digital up to date copy will remain available at all times.
The revised Part III does still take effect in Australia from 1 July 2026.
The Rule (Seventh Edition) This is the 7th Edition, published in 2012. Download this as a PDF or keep scrolling for the HTML version.
Preview of The Rule, Part III (Eighth Edition) 2 March 2026 (grammatical revisions), Part III will be effective from 1 July 2026.
Preview of The Rule, Part III, The Procedures (Please note that minor changes to the footnotes are still being updated).
