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A key concept in American legislative politics is the extent to which members are effective, that is, have the ability to propose and advance bills on important topics in Congress. We propose a new measure of a member's legislative effectiveness that covers both chambers from 1873 to 2010 and incorporates all 1.1 million introduced bills, opening up a wide range of new opportunities for examining legislative institutions and behavior across this long historical period. To pursue this, we theorize and empirically examine how the determinants of a member's legislative effectiveness hinge on legislative institutions. While uncovering consistent results with the existing literature that has focused on the period starting in the early 1970s, we find striking differences when examining earlier periods. For instance, we find that ideological moderates have higher effectiveness relative to extremists before 1975, whereas the importance of majority party membership increases dramatically from 1947. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing use of measures of economic coercion by China has caused its trading partners to review their close trade ties with that country as well as their ability to resist such pressure. In December 2022, the European Union (EU) requested that the World Trade Organization (WTO) adjudicate its dispute with China regarding restrictive trade measures China had imposed on Lithuania in response to its foreign policy actions that were not to China’s liking. The EU also drafted new legislation – the Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the Protection of the Union and its Member States from Economic Coercion by Third Countries – to deter third countries from applying coercive measures that target the EU and its Member States. This paper considers the new instrument in the context of the EU’s evolving ‘economic de-risking’ strategy on China and a wide range of measures aimed at protecting the common market from the unfair behaviour of China and other states and reducing the EU vulnerability vis-à-vis economic and security threats. The EU’s ability to deter states from applying coercive measures against it hinges upon its ability to strengthen its market power and to use the new instrument when necessary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Office of the Slovak Plenipotentiary for National Minorities is currently preparing a law on the status of national minorities. The working group is drafting the bill on a section-by-section basis. So far, two parts of the draft law--the preamble and general provisions--have been discussed. The working group has also begun to consider the background material for the other parts of the draft, which are intended to define the institutional arrangements for the exercise of the rights of national minorities, the monitoring of compliance with them and the participation of national minorities. This article will focus on the analysis of the participation of MPs belonging to national minorities in the Slovak Parliament, which is envisaged in the Legislative Intent of the National Minorities Act and proposed in the working group's background material on this topic. First, however, I will look at what is meant by political participation in social sciences and in the practice of international institutions dealing with the rights of national minorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Not all pieces of legislation introduced for consideration are equally likely to be successful. The characteristics of legislation's cosponsors can influence bill passage rates. Despite facing marginalization in legislative bodies and more electoral vulnerability, women are effective lawmakers. We argue that one way by which women overcome marginalization and gendered expectations of performance is bill success from legislation cosponsored with other women. Testing this expectation on bills (140,000+) introduced in U.S. state legislatures in forty states in 2015, we find increased bill success from women's cosponsorship with each other and women from the other party. Using variation in the share of women in legislative chambers and in legislative leadership, we find evidence to suggest that women's success emerges both from marginalization and gendered opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After having played a minor role in European politics for a long time, national parliaments were empowered to "guardians of subsidiarity" under the Lisbon Treaty. This article scrutinizes whether they have succeeded in influencing European Union legislation with reasoned opinions over the past ten years. A statistical analysis of all opinions up to 2020 shows that the Commission recalls draft legislative acts significantly more often after receiving at least one reprimand. A comparison of the parliamentary chambers suggests that these withdrawal decisions were not driven by strategic considerations such as a member state's voting weight in the Council. Both indicate that the "Early Warning System" works better in practice than previously assumed. This result should encourage members of national parliaments to make more active use of this instrument of subsidiarity control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper looks at how legislative quality is addressed in Canada by private (non-Executive) members of the two legislative chambers forming part of the federal Parliament (the Senate and the House of Commons). It considers legislative quality from three perspectives (1. Policy and Politics, 2. Legality, 3. Accessibility / Intelligibility) and reviews the resources and mechanisms parliamentarians have at their disposal to assess and improve the quality of legislation. The paper concludes that, while there is some potential for considerable parliamentary contribution to legislative quality, it is in fact relatively limited. This largely results from the dominant role the Executive plays in the development and enactment of legislation. The paper suggests the current pandemic crisis might provide an opportunity to re-evaluate this dominance and approaches to addressing legislative quality in Canada. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the case of Spain as part of a broader comparative study on parliamentary scrutiny of the quality of legislation, looking in particular at the role played by the Letrados de las Cortes Generales, the corps of high-ranking parliamentary civil servants, or clerks, of the Spanish bicameral legislature. As in many other countries, the Spanish political landscape has witnessed an increasing polarisation in the last decade which has led to the fragmentation of the Congreso de los Diputados, or Lower House, once dominated by a two-party system. This has severely affected the parliament´s legislative function. Fewer laws are passed, and there has been a shift in the origin of legislative initiative. Government bills are no longer so easily passed, whereas non-governmental bills have more chances now of becoming laws than before. Against this background, and given the lack of specific parliamentary bodies or guidelines for the scrutiny of the quality of legislation, the Letrados de las Cortes Generales seem essential in contributing to improving the quality of bills, whichever its origin, throughout the legislative procedure, until their passing into laws. This article explores at length their role and the different steps and ways in which they do this. It also analyses the progress in setting standards and bodies for Legislative Drafting by the Spanish Government since, in the absence of specific ones for parliament, Government's Guidelines are usually applied by the Letrados in their work. To illustrate the current debate on the quality of legislation, the evolution of the Spanish Constitutional Court's rulings on the matter is also briefly outlined. In conclusion, and though limited to legal and technical aspects, the Letrados de las Cortes Generaleś scrutiny of bills does contribute, to a large albeit imperfect extent, to improving the quality of legislation in Spain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Riksdag committees’ use of their right to initiate legislation or budget amendments has evolved notably under the parliament’s unicameral period. Committee initiatives are used less for rectifying legislative drafting errors and increasingly as a political tool by the opposition in sharp conflict with the Government’s wishes. Increase in levels of conflict and the fragmentation of political landscape (from five to eight parliamentary parties) correspond with amplified use of committees’ initiative powers. After June 2011 opposition parties started to intensify the deployment of initiatives against the will of the governing parties. Since November 2020, this trend has increased enormously. The general level of unity behind initiatives has continuously decreased since 1971. These developments cast doubt on the political parties’ abilities to live up to the lawmaker’s presuppositions that committee initiatives should be used carefully and in strive of unity and that they should not lead to undue interference in the Government’s activities [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Plural - Revista de Ciências Sociais is the property of Revista Plural and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

It is a common arrangement in different legislatures that individual members who are not ministers can bring forward bills (private members' bills), but the drafting of a bill may involve certain technicalities that are usually outside their knowledge. How, then, do legislators prepare the text of private members' bills? This article presents the way in which support is provided to those members who seek to introduce their bills in the UK Parliament, the Scottish Parliament, the National Assembly for Wales, the Northern Ireland Assembly, and the National Diet of Japan. It then discusses two common challenges for such support: how to avoid the risk that demand will outstrip supply and how to make sure that the drafting of private members' bills meets the quality standards (if any). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article debates Brazilian legislative policy, accepted as a meta policy focused on normative quality and performance, both on formal and substantive aspects. The main object is to show that, despite the fact that the country has a formal policy at least since 2002, there is a wide gap between normative requirements and lawmaking practice. Both recent literature and the perception of high level governmental actors do converge in this direction. One of the central elements of the Brazilian legislative policy – Decree 4,176/2002 – is widely seen as a fictional tool. To confirm this statement, I first bring a short background about institutions and legislative process in Brazil, focusing on some particularities as the crucial role of the Executive branch in the lawmaking process. I then debate the theory and practice of Brazilian lawmaking and rulemaking, with special emphasis on the legislative policy stated by Decree 4,176/2002. The realist dichotomy,law in booksandlaw in action, will be a theoretical guide here. Then, I discuss the technical aspects that (were expected to) surround the legislative production, particularly the substantive ones. The opinion of important high-level governmental actors that have dealt with drafting and regulation in the last ten years, captured by a semi-structured survey, is then shown. They confirm the idea that Brazilian legislative meta policy has a low impact on the legal elaboration, and is not seen as convenient to the contemporary governmental actions. But they also say there is large room for improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this Article, we argue that both sides of the usual debate over statutory interpretation--text versus purpose--rest on a common, but flawed, premise. Judges and scholars have assumed that legislative bodies are the authors of statutes. We disagree; instead, we argue that the people are the authors of statutes. Legislative bodies play an indispensable role in the process: they draft statutes. And courts play a similarly indispensable role: they interpret statutes. But ultimately, it is the polity--we, the people--that is responsible, as authors, for the content of the law. This shift yields dramatic consequences. To date, no theory of statutory interpretation has been able to explain the actual labor of interpreting statutes--either with respect to "super" statutes or with respect to regular statutes. Canons of statutory construction, though familiar to any practitioner, are a source of puzzlement for theorists. Our theory attempts to answer the challenge. It both offers an explanation of existing interpretive practices and supplies a normatively compelling view of what statutory construction involves. In this effort, we reach back to the origins of modern political theory--to the work of Thomas Hobbes--to demonstrate that "self-authorship" has long been integral to the ideal of democracy. Ultimately, the problem is very simple. Commentators have long been sympathetic to the notion of self-authorship as applied to "fundamental" law--especially constitutional law. But they have failed to notice that the exact same issues are at stake in the construction of "ordinary" laws. That is the connection we make here. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Legislative drafting can be seen as having both artistic and scientific aspects. Legislative drafting manuals are increasingly used in the drafting of legislation. The art / science conceptions of drafting underpin many of the arguments for and against drafting manuals. Drafters from four jurisdictions were surveyed on the usefulness of drafting manuals. The results showed that manuals were more useful in the scientific aspects of drafting than in the artistic aspects. Personal experience and guidance from fellow drafters were reported as the most useful drafting resource. The conclusion drawn is that manuals can be a useful source of guidance but should not be treated as containing binding rules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

If the logical, trichotomic organization of the laws forms its stable internal structure, the technical and legislative body forms its external structure. It is correlated to the celerity requirements which are included in the legislative system, in different stages of its development, and also to the general principles of legal techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The search for simplicity in legislative drafting affects all legislatures. It is also central to the work of the New Zealand Law Commission and of governments in other comparable jurisdictions. Rather than exploring a range of statutes in various jurisdictions, this article focuses on income tax. It does so for two reasons. The first is that income tax has been crucial to the funding of government in common law jurisdictions and to achieving a legislative balance between simplicity and other criteria of an acceptable tax system. The second is that we can draw on three recent projects to rewrite income tax legislation - in Australia, the United Kingdom and New Zealand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Party-based theories argue that leaders of the majority party use restrictive rules to increase that majority's influence over policy. However, informational theorists suggest that restrictive rules reduce information costs and encourage committee specialization. Using data on every bill on which the House Rules Committee placed a rule from the 94th through 109th Congresses, I test these explanations. Considering the use of restrictive rules, the evidence verifies some of the predictions of partisan theories, but unveils mixed support for informational theories. In addition, we learn that Democratic and Republican majorities differ with respect to the use of restrictive rules. The results indicate that Republican majorities behaved as more of a procedural cartel than their Democratic predecessors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Internal Security is the property of Police Academy in Szczytno and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

There is no single answer to the question whether regulation can be improved if parliaments or governments are given guidance. The problem lies in the polysemous concept of legislative quality that can be legal (subsidiarity, proportionality, legal security, transparency, …), factual (effectiveness, simplicity of State action, …) or drafting-related (clarity, consistency, concision, …). Legistics methods are required to achieve better law-making. These can be codified in both formal and material legistics guides, so that Parliaments and Governments will not only be able to improve legislative drafting, but also the law's ability to affect social reality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author presents his thoughts on reforming the British House of Commons as of August 2001. The author notes the constitutional and technological innovations in British government and society and argues that the institutional operation of the House of Commons remained largely unchanged from its mid-19th century practices and rules. The author argues that change in the operation of the House of Commons was necessary in order to avoid irrelevancy. The author recommends changes to the parliamentary work day, stronger scrutiny of legislation, and the reduction of the role of the British monarchy concerning the agenda of the House of Commons. The article also discusses possible options for electronic voting and other uses of technology that might modernize the House of Commons.

The article looks at the concept of rational evaluation of legislation. The elements involved in the self-imposed discipline for the evaluation of legislation are cited, one of which is setting time limits in legislation. Also explored are the techniques and methods of rational and objective evaluation of legislation including the test of necessity and evaluation in a narrower sense. The role of parliaments in the institutionalisation of evaluation is examined.

Shares insights on the legislative reference and bill-drafting services in the U.S. Congress and among state legislatures in the country. Work of lawyers in legislative drafting; Importance of a thorough and technically sound legislative research and drafting work; History of technical drafting services.

The article discusses the use of Private Member's Bills in the British House of Commons as of October 1966. The author discusses the benefits of Private Member's Bills including the introduction of legislative proposals apart from the executive, enabling debate over public questions in the House of Commons, and the further establishment of the significance of the legislature in improving the law. The article also examines opportunities of members of parliament (M.P.s) to introduce Private Member's Bills, the process of introducing such legislation, and legislative procedures associated with Private Member's Bills including restrictions on second readings of the bills. The article also discusses the rights of those M.P.s who object to such bills.

The article explores a program designed to train legislative drafters in Alberta. It mentions that the province's Legislative Assembly realized a need for a program that could provide instruction in sound drafting practice and allow graduates to develop knowledge then applies it in real life. The program reaches out to prospective students from various countries and provides accessible materials and guidance from experienced and knowledgeable instructors.