How do you go about drafting an Act of Parliament? In this classic text, Lord Thing, the great Victorian Parliamentary Counsel, sets out the basic rules of the art and craft of creating legislation. Operating in a field where there are no concrete rules, Thring saw the need to formulate general rules of guidance for those inexperienced in the art of legislative drafting and published his work following his appointment as First Parliamentary Counsel. Much of what he says remains relevant now and so, this new edition presents it to a modern readership.

It provides a critical description and evaluation of how laws are made for Wales including the most recent changes made by the Wales Act 2017 which come into effect in 2018. It analyses and assesses the process of preparing and drafting legislation for Wales in terms of the requirements of democratic processes and respect for the rule of law. It analyses and assesses the legislative procedures of the legislatures which make law for Wales, explaining how they reflect the demands of law-making in a representative democracy. It is written in a clear and accessible style which does not require prior knowledge of its subject matter. It is written by two authors who between them have considerable experience at the highest levels of the law-making processes of Wales and the UK.

Drafting Legislation sets out to prove Sir William Dale's doctrine that the rules for drafting good quality legislation are the same in common and civil systems of law. Legislative solutions can therefore serve the drafter, the judge and the practitioner of any jurisdiction. The book discusses the general issue of quality in legislation from the legislative process to the actual drafting interpretation and enforcement. It also analyzes topics related to quality in legislation such as clarity, precision and disambiguity, plain language and gender-neutral language and assesses whether Sir William's view of universality in the definition and elements of quality in legislation is right or not. The volume is of critical interest to students and scholars of European law and the philosophy and theory of law.

What does the rule of law mean, in practical terms, for the way that legislation is prepared, drafted and presented? It is a cornerstone of the UK legal order and requires certain things from the legal system, such as that the law must be intelligible, predictable and accessible. This book examines what those requirements mean for the form that legislation must take. Using the rule of law as the starting point, the author uses deductive reasoning to determine what flows from this in terms of the form of legislation. Each element of the rule of law is analysed to establish principles about the form that legislation ought to take, and the book examines how each principle can be given concrete effect. The originality lies in the nexus between the rule of law and the form of legislation. Much has been written about the nature and content of the rule of law, but relatively little has been devoted to legisprudence, the theory and practice of legislation. This book now draws these two subjects together in a detailed and innovative way.

Better Regulation in the EU is a perennial and topical question which has important implications for the future direction of EU law. While actions directed at improving the quality and accessibility of EU regulation are not novel, in recent years the Better Regulation Agenda has significantly affected the structural organisation and day-to-day operation of the EU legislative process. Yet, many questions about the future of the Agenda remain, not least in light of Brexit. Exploring the Better Regulation Agenda (and its relation to the overall EU legal and political order) necessitates an integrated, interdisciplinary approach. This edited volume presents insights from economics, political science and legal scholarship. Furthermore, to allow full understanding, it examines institutional practice, where the Agenda is made and shaped on a daily basis. Hence, the book features contributions from the perspective of the work of the main EU institutions: the European Commission, the Parliament, the Council and the Court of Justice. This results in a seminal overview of the subject, of interest to scholars and practitioners alike.