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.

Principles of Legislative and Regulatory Drafting provides a succinct guide to an area of law and practice which has previously been poorly served by English textbooks. It explains how drafters can convert legislative and regulatory policy into a form which has the desired effect in the most direct and accessible way. On the basis that those who seek to communicate must be conscious of how their words will be read, it includes a chapter on interpretation. Other chapters include the nature of drafting instructions (including ethical considerations), the general principles of drafting, the protection of human rights, the creation of statutory corporations and schemes of licensing, subordinate legislation, and the creation of criminal offences. The principles and skills of drafting are very largely common to both the legislative and regulatory fields, but the book draws attention to areas in which significant differences arise. Extracts from the Interpretation Act 1978 and the European Convention on Human Rights are included as Appendices. The book provides an invaluable introduction for those engaged in legislative and regulatory drafting, while also being useful to anyone who is interested in the creation and interpretation of legislative and regulatory texts.

This book constitutes the first thorough academic analysis of legislative drafting. By placing the study of legislation and its principles within the paradigm of Flyvberg's phronetic social sciences, it offers a novel approach which breaks the tradition of unimaginative past descriptive reiterations of drafting conventions. Instead of prescribing rules for legislation, it sets out to identify efficacy as the main aim of the actors in the policy, legislative and drafting processes, and effectiveness as the main goal in the drafting of legislation. Through the prism of effectiveness as synonymous with legislative quality, the book explores the stages of the drafting process; guides the reader through structure and sections in their logical sequence, and introduces rules for drafting preliminary, substantive and final provisions. Special provisions, comparative legislative drafting and training for drafters complete this thorough analysis of the drafting of legislation as a tool for regulation. Instead of teaching the reader which drafting rules prevail, the book explores the reasons why drafting rules have come about, thus encouraging readers to understand what goal is served by each rule and how each rule applies. The book is aimed at academics and practitioners who draft or use statutory law in the common or civil law traditions.

The drafter has skills and knowledge not generally possessed by policy makers. The drafter is an architect.an expert...a specialist...The difference between a legal mechanic and a legal craftsman turns largely on this point. -- G. Thornton, Legislative Drafting (London, Butterworths, 1996) p.125. *** As the quotation shows, without knowledge of legislative drafting theory and principles, a legislative drafter's competence is as incomplete. This book introduces the relevant theories and principles that are necessary for promoting quality legislation in the field of legislative drafting. A "legislative drafting theory" or "legislative theory" is defined as: "the structure of a drafter's justification for a bill constitutes the operative face of a de facto legislative theory and methodology". The first and fundamental theory is the necessity for a regulatory framework for legislative drafting as a holistic platform for promoting quality legislation. Closely related is the principle of effectiveness of legislation as the paramount goal in legislative drafting. By combining these two fundamental principles, the book demonstrates how legislative drafters can improve the quality of legislation. The purpose is not to lay down any hard-and-fast rules, but to provoke thinking by introducing the reader to principles derived from legislative drafting in the dominant jurisdictions of the common law, civil law, and the European Union law. Using legislative drafting in Nigeria as a case study, the book demonstrates how application of these theories and principles are likely to prove beneficial even in the most challenging jurisdiction. Examples from Nigeria's oil and gas legislation have been chosen to illustrate the hypothesis. Oil and gas legislation have been chosen considering its transnational nature and pervasive impact on the economy. This book is a significant contribution in the field of legislative drafting, considering that it is the first book that discusses the quality of legislation and not techniques of drafting which has suffered from a paralysis of analysis in other legislative drafting texts.