Vacatio legis

Vacatio legis is a technical term in law, Latin for absence of law, that designates the period between the announcement of a piece of legislation and its entering into force. Within that interval the legislation has been announced but has not yet taken effect, which is why the phrase speaks of the law as absent even though its text is already known. The concept also exists in Catholic canon law, so the idea of a set interval between promulgation and taking effect belongs to the Church's own legal system as well as to secular legislation. The source article is very brief and gives no further detail, such as the length of the period in any particular country or the legislation to which it has been applied, so those specifics remain for later depth work.