From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
The Thirty Year Rule is the popular name given to a law in the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Australia that states that the yearly cabinet papers of a government will be released publicly thirty years after they were created.
Usually this occurs on 1 January of a particular year. The only papers not released (or if they are contained in other papers 'blacked out') are those which are deemed likely to cause "damage to the country's image or foreign relations" if they were to be released.
