Full Description
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.
Contents
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
