sunset clause

Syllable breakdown

Dictionary meaning

a provision written into a piece of legislation, regulation, or administrative programme that automatically terminates the law or programme on a specified future date unless the legislature affirmatively acts to renew or extend it, requiring periodic reauthorisation and review rather than allowing measures to persist indefinitely without fresh democratic scrutiny; sunset clauses are advocated as a check on legislative accumulation and bureaucratic expansion, forcing legislators to actively reassess whether emergency measures, experimental programmes, or regulatory regimes remain appropriate as circumstances change; they are commonly used for temporary emergency legislation, tax provisions, pilot programmes, and intelligence surveillance authorities where the potential for overreach and the importance of periodic review are especially acute