seadusena

Seadusena is an Estonian grammatical and legal-terminological form meaning “as a law.” It is built from the noun seadus (law) plus the suffix -ena, creating a construction used to indicate the status or role of a norm or document. The phrase is most common in formal legal writing, legislative drafting, and scholarly analysis, where authors want to emphasize that something is adopted, treated, or interpreted as law rather than as guidance or a non-binding rule.

In usage, seadusena appears in predicative phrases such as seadusena kehtima (“to come into force as law”) and seadusena vastu võetud (“adopted as law”). It can also modify nouns or clauses, for example “seadusena vastu võetud määrus” (“a regulation adopted as law”). The construction is typically formal and somewhat narrow in scope, and it is not a separate legal category; it is a grammatical device that foregrounds status rather than a substantive normative term.

Etymology and form: The term combines seadus with the instrumental-like suffix -ena, producing a phrase that functions similarly to “as a law.” The form is part of a broader pattern in Estonian of using -na/-ena nominalizations to express role, function, or status.

See also: Estonian language, legal drafting, jurisprudence.