Principles and Practice of Legal Drafting

Program Overview:

Legislative drafting is the act of transforming government policies into written laws, with the aim of ensuring that legislation is clear, concise and understandable to those affected by it. Achieving this can be challenging as government policies often involves around many complex issues that are difficult to convey in a simple and everyday language.

Consistency is key in all aspects of drafting as these may including use of vocabulary, structure, language and style, and building sentences to convey the intended meanings. This highly interactive course will equip participants with a range of good drafting tools used to create well written legislation.

For Whom:

This program is designed for professional legislative drafters from drafting offices from around the world; policy experts employed in agencies not directly involved in drafting, but who want to be able to better work with their legislative drafting counterparts. Legal Officers and others who perform related functions will equally benefit from this program.

Learning Objectives:

By the end of the program, participants will be able to:

• Draft legislation clearly and concisely
• Understand the principles of good legislative drafting techniques
• Use plain language
• Make laws more readable and understandable to those affected by them
• Amend outdated legislation
• Know common drafting mistakes and how to avoid them

Course Outline

Day 1: Introduction to law-making

• Government Systems

• • Institutions of government
  • Separation of powers
    • The Executive, Judiciary & Legislature

• The role and Functions of the Legislature
  • Principles of legislative drafting
  • Turning policy into legislation

• The presidential system

Day 2: Legislative Tools and Procedures

• Types of legislation
• Primary and secondary legislation
• Dissecting a statute
• Structure and elements of an Act of Parliament
• Assembling the machinery of an Act
• Problems with how laws work

Language in legislation: Drafting with Clarity

• Understanding good and bad legislative drafting

• Principles of drafting

• Drafting clear legislative sentences
• Plain language, gender neutral, active voice, use of singular, etc.

• Dos and Don’ts in drafting
• Writing instructions for the parliamentary draftsman

• In-class exercises to build your skill sets

Day 3: The Law-Making Process: Using Legislative Drafting Tools

• From policy to the draft Bill
• What is policy and Sources of policy
• Setting policy priorities
• The process of turning policy into new laws
• Gaining buy-in to legal change
• Role and responsibilities in policy making
• Stages of the process
• Legislative timetables
• Assessing regulatory impact
• How the Bill team functions
• Constraints on the process of making laws
• Amending and developing the law
• Compliance and enforcement
• Avoidance and evasion

Day 4: Understanding the Components of a Bill

• Organization of provisions within a bill
• Titles and headings
• Enacting and resolving clauses
• Purposes, findings, and senses of Congress
• General rules and exceptions
• Effective dates and sunset provisions
• Authorization of appropriations
• Savings clauses and severability clauses

Drafting a Simple Bill

• In-class practice turning a proposal for legislation into legislative language

Day 5: Drafting Amendments to Bills

• The legislative process for amending bills
• The form and language of amendments to bills

                Drafting Amendments to Statutes

• The form and language of amendments to statutes
• Drafting inside and outside of the quotes

      Technology in Legislative Drafting

• Computer software options for legislative drafting
• Tips and tricks to make formatting easier

      Drafting a Complex Bill

• Organization of Legislative Provisions
• Close Supervision and Review of Drafting Work

Training Methodology

• Lectures, discussions, exercises, case studies, audio-visual aids will be used to reinforce these teachings/learning methods.