Enhancing Legislative Drafting in the Commonwealth: A Wealth of Innovation

ISBN-13: 9781138794528 / Angielski / Twarda / 2014 / 156 str.

Helen Xanthaki

Opis

Legislation has traditionally been viewed as a text addressed to and used by lawyers and judges. But with enhanced accessibility via electronic publication of legislation in many Commonwealth jurisdictions, drafters speak not only to lawyers and judges, but also to untrained users. This shift of the legislative audience has changed radically the requirements for legislation and its drafting. This is crucially important as the quality of legislation within the Commonwealth remains an essential element of democracy and the rule of law. The book aims to alert policy officers, legal officers, law reformers, and drafters of the many innovations in the drafting of legislation within the Commonwealth. And ultimately to bring to light the academic foundations of the modern approach to legislative quality, which really boils down to effectiveness of the legislative product. This book was based on a special issue of Commonwealth Law Bulletin.

Spis treści

1. Quality of Legislation in the Commonwealth  2. Is legislative drafting a form of communication?  3. Clarity, precision and unambiguity: aspects for effective legislative drafting  4. In pursuit of clarity: how far should the drafter go?  5. Plain language: give it a try!  6. Drafting and plain language  7. Gender neutral language: an essential language tool to serve precision, clarity and unambiguity  8. Is gender neutral drafting an effective tool against gender inequality?  9. Legislative drafters: lawyers or not?  10. The role of the Rwandan legislative drafter in the legislative process: analysis stage  11. Prioritising legislation in the legislative process  12. Savings clause: get it right  13. The effect of transplanting legislation from one jurisdiction to another  14. Prerogative legislation as a paradigm of bad law making: the Chagos Islands  15. Incorporation of international and regional human rights instruments: comparative analysis of methods  16. Properly drafted arbitration agreements as a safeguard to its adequate interpretation: Rwanda as a case study

O autorze

Helen Xanthaki is Professor of Law and Legislative Drafting at the University of London, and Academic Director of the Sir William Dale Centre for Legislative Studies at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies of the University of London. She is the Director of the Commonwealth Course in Legislative Drafting, and Co-Director of the LLM in Advanced Legislative Studies via Distance Learning. She teaches legislative drafting at the University of London. She is the editor of the 2014 edition of Thornton’s Legislative Drafting, author of Drafting Legislation: Art and Technology of Rules for Regulation, and numerous articles on legislative drafting, legislative quality, and law reform. Helen is a consultant legislative trainer and drafter, and has worked for the EU, and numerous governments in the Commonwealth and beyond.