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The aim of legislative drafting is to express the instructing client’s meaning. Legislative drafters are often lawyers with a significant impact on the interpretation and the implementation of the law. This article takes a different perspective and attempts to prove that legislative drafters do not necessarily have to be lawyers. The arguments of this hypothesis are important in establishing that legislative drafting is a specialised skill with general principles and conventions that can be acquired by training and practice. The conclusion would be to prove the hypothesis that legislative drafting could also be undertaken by non-lawyers. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The topic of my article was chosen so that it could help to evaluate the current practice in legislative drafting in Rwanda and suggest ways for improvement in order to carry out the legislative role effectively. The article discusses the background study made and the next step of analysing whether the legislation complies with the Constitution. It proceeds to the special responsibility area that deals with putting the policy into legislative shape. Ultimately, thoroughly analysed good quality legislation that is in conformity with the Constitution will be effectively implemented. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Drafting a piece of legislation is not an end in itself but its major value lies in its practicability. For some time, jurisprudence has not maintained a distinction between policy formulation and policy implementation. Law without compliance and an enforcement effect is like story telling. It may be a very well-written project but have very little to do with the practical world. Prioritisation as a mechanism towards drafting practicable legislation is also an item for the transparency of the legislative plan and process. Between policy formulation and policy implementation, prioritisation is a key player. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Producing law which is clear and easily accessible to the reader is a priority for the drafter. Thus, the use of plain language is one key issue which can help to improve clarity in drafting law. It can make the law much easier to understand and can maintain good standards. At the level of structure, plain language drafters try to organise laws in a clear and meaningful way. If everybody decides to use language in any way he or she likes, it would be impossible to meet the requirements of every listener and reader. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article seeks to explore the history of gender-neutral drafting and its purported impact upon deep-rooted gender inequality within the legal system to date. The article draws upon examples that highlight the fact that gender inequality has penetrated deeper into our legal system--deeper than assumed-- and contends that it is a fallacy to think that gender-neutral drafting is an effective cure for the disease of patriarchy. The article analyses various pieces of legislation within the context of gender-neutral drafting. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The hypothesis of the article is that legal transplants are a haphazard means of legislating, whereby a complex and difficult situation arises if the drafter cannot harmonise the laws being transplanted with that of the recipient country. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Clarity is very important in legislative drafting to allow the drafter to eliminate ambiguity and vagueness in the law, which may affect the rights of citizens. Ambiguity occurs when in the law words can be interpreted in more than one way and vagueness occurs when there is doubt to where the words’ boundaries are or when the word has an open textured meaning. It is difficult to attain clarity due to the fact that in legislation ambiguity and vagueness may be caused by insufficient drafting instructions, and it is incumbent on the drafter to seek further clarifications. In pursuing clarity, some tools are needed such as the use of plain language which makes legislation clear and understandable for a lay person, gender-neutral language and the proper structuring or layout of the legislative intent to enhance clarity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The importance of plain language is acknowledged in various fields including legislative drafting. In Malaysia, although plain language drafting is not a new idea, it is rarely attempted. Many provisions of legislation still portray verbosity and complexity. This article intends to focus on Malaysian legislation, in particular the enforcement provisions, which are still drafted in a complex and verbose way, and to prove that writing enforcement provisions in plain language is possible and can be done. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Penal Code is the main of source of criminal law and criminal offences in Malawi. Unfortunately, as the results of a survey show, many people in Malawi do not understand the provisions of the Penal Code. This article examines aspects of the language of the Penal Code which impede people’s understanding of the provisions. The article recommends that the Penal Code be amended and redrafted in a language which the audience can understand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Experts on legislative drafting almost take it for granted that drafting is a form of communication. Indeed, the few articles on the topic tend to look at drafting as a form of communication in the context of legal theory and legal philosophy. This article takes a different perspective and attempts to examine legislative drafting as a form of communication using communications theory. The logic is that if drafting is a form of communication then it should conform with basic communication models. The implications of this hypothesis are quite important in establishing a multidisciplinary perspective for future research in legislative drafting. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article examines the history, structure and current role of the Commonwealth Association of Legislative Counsel (CALC). CALC is the main organisation of legislative counsel, or legislative drafters, in the Commonwealth. CALC consists of 1000 members spread across the Commonwealth. Major activities include raising awareness of the importance of legislative counsel to the rule of law, conducting conferences of legislative counsel and producing a number of publications related to legislative drafting. The author is the head of the Australian Office of Parliamentary Counsel and the current President of CALC. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This essay is about gender-neutral language as an essential tool that serves precision, clarity and unambiguity, three drafting techniques in achieving effectiveness in regulating society. Scholars and experts, among others, have criticised the use of gender-neutral language in drafting legislations generally, and its unsatisfactory nature for precision, clarity and unambiguity in particular. In light of this, the article focuses on establishing whether the use of gender-neutral language is essential and serves as a tool in achieving precision, clarity and unambiguity. Traditionally, men have been the dominant force and our language has developed in ways that reflect male dominance, sometimes to the total exclusion of women. It is for these reasons that the increase in the use of gender-neutral language has mainly been attributed to the gripe of gender equality in our various societies. However this is not the only reason. This article argues that gender-neutral language is a tool which serves precision, clarity and ambiguity in that it aims to promote gender specificity in the pronoun used when drafting legislation, it reduces and in some cases completely omits redundancies and, in the process, produces shorter sentences which in turn produce clear and unambiguous drafts. It also raises the recognition of the potential for ambiguity and uncertainty in the use of pronouns, especially in sentences with two actors, thus raising doubt over the meaning. Nevertheless, the drafter should never sacrifice clarity, precision or unambiguity for simplicity, elegance or eloquence if clarity, precision and unambiguity achieve effectiveness. And if the tool to achieve them is by the use of gender-neutral language, then by all means they must be used. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

When drafting legislation, the drafter’s primary duty is to give effect to the policy of the sponsors of the law, but it is important for the drafter to have in mind the category of people who will read and use the legislation. It is also worth noting that when drafting legislation, a drafter should ensure clarity, precision and unambiguity. A drafter bears an obligation to maintain the rule of law. As part of this burden, a drafter must take care that the form of the law lends itself to clarity, precision and consistency. For without clarity, precision and consistency the law has no predictability. The rule of law demands that as much as is possible, people should know in advance what the law demands of them, what the law grants to them and what sorts of behaviour they can expect from officials. It is therefore important that a drafter makes the law as simple and as clear as possible. This can only be achieved by employing the aspects of clarity, precision and unambiguity as tools of effective legislating drafting which is analysed in this article. Also analysed is the use of plain language and gender-neutral drafting as a measure of ensuring clarity, precision and unambiguity when drafting legislation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

There is a worldwide shortage of legislative drafters, while the volume and complexity of government legislative programmes is everywhere on the rise. Improving the efficiency and effectiveness of training for legislative counsel must be an important part of the response to this imbalance in an area crucial to good governance. In the conventional view of legislative drafting, the knowledge and skills required by drafters are often narrowly conceived and training is treated primarily as a matter of acquiring experience on the job by observing how senior drafters worked - 'sitting with Nellie'. The author believes that the conventional view underestimates both (i) the scope of the knowledge and skills that are required in the drafting activity; and (ii) the range of techniques that can be used to teach and learn the required knowledge and skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article outlines the qualities required of Parliamentary Counsel. It notes that drafting is an extremely onerous, exacting and highly-skilled task. What is clearly conceived in the mind may not be easily expressed with clarity and precision in words. Drafters are wordsmiths, and good policy may become a bad law as a result of the bad arrangement of words in a legislative sentence - creating an ambiguity, a vagueness, an obscurity, or even an absurdity. The author notes that Parliamentary Counsel must have a strong interest in substantive policy. Yet the classic theory is that Parliamentary Counsel do not initiate policy. They are only technicians whose function it is to translate policy into law. The author concludes that legislative drafting requires the cultivation of detachment as a necessary qualification. Legislative drafting cannot hold its audience captive. It can consistently captivate its audience to the ideals behind the policy decisions that motivate legislation. In these lie its purpose, its strengths, and its value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides background to the Commonwealth Secretariat Caribbean Short Course in Legislative Drafting. It explains the principles on which the Course has been based and the author, the Course Director, gives some details of how it has been taught and assessed. It looks at some of the problems which have arisen and the results which have been achieved, concluding with a review of possible alternatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the role of the draftsperson in the legislative process. The services of a parliamentary counsel are utilized from the stage of making policy and drafting it in the form of legislative provisions. The main role of a parliamentary counsel is to give proper shape to the policies of the Government into legal provisions with adequate teeth for implementation. The legislative counsel should have sound knowledge of law and legal principles. The qualities of legislative drafters as well as the various stages of the drafting process are described, with particular reference to the position in India and Guyana. Ultimately, the task of a draftsperson is to help the country to have precise, readable and easily understandable laws useful to, and usable by, the public, to know and enforce their rights and privileges, perform their duties and be aware of their liabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The most important duty of a government is to create a conducive environment in which citizens can meaningfully participate in the development of the country and also develop their personal capabilities to the fullest extent possible. This article examines the sometimes problematic issue, not generally seen as critically important, of prioritising legislative proposals and, in passing, briefly touches on the catalytic role of the legislative drafter as an agent for change and social transformation. Anyone who has knowledge of legislative drafting will confirm that the drafter is by no means a completely free agent in respect of the manner in which to carry out the task of drafting. Of necessity, there is a political angle to what the drafter does and the reason for this is that the legislative programme of a government lies at the heart of the government's domestic activities. Bills are political instruments as well as legal instruments. Seen in this light, the drafter is an important player in the machinery of government, as otherwise it would not be possible to translate government policies into effective law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is widely accepted that many legal challenges facing small Commonwealth jurisdictions today are common to all countries, both large and small. However, it is equally true that many of these challenges are more acute and prevail to a large extent in smaller jurisdictions. Legislative drafting is one such challenge. The shortage of legislative drafting expertise impedes implementation of policies and government legislative programmes. It is quite apparent that the problems faced in small jurisdictions appear to be more acute than those of larger Commonwealth countries. This reflects the necessity for small Commonwealth states to adopt, apart from the solutions advocated to meet common challenges, special procedures, policies and infrastructure at a national level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the process of professionalizing legal drafting in Commonwealth Africa. It is argued that, in view of the centralized drafting system, the linguistic skill of the legal drafter must be complemented by the skill of the administrative or departmental officials to provide policy and substantive inputs in the drafting of Bills. The object of this article is to draw attention to the need for the systematic training of administrators so as to prepare them effectively for their role of contributing the legislative policy and the substantive input in the legal drafting process, especially as regards the formulation of accurate drafting instructions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the author discusses reports published within the issue, including an article on the pursuit of clarity in drafting legislation, an article which argues that it is not impossible for a non-lawyer to become a legislative drafter, and a report on legal transplantation.