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Duration 35 hours
Course Outline
Day 1: Introduction to Legislative Drafting
Understanding Legislative Drafting
- The purpose and role of legislative drafting
- Factors that contribute to effective legislation
- Core principles of high-quality legislative drafting
- Distinguishing legislative drafting from ordinary legal writing
- Understanding the intended audience and end-users of legislation
- Moving from policy objectives to legislative provisions
The Legislative Process
- Identifying the need for new legislation
- Policy development and legal implementation strategies
- The various stages of the legislative process
- The respective roles of policymakers, legal advisers, and legislative drafters
- Differentiating between primary and secondary/subordinate legislation
Structure of Legislation
- Titles and introductory provisions
- Organisation into Parts, chapters, sections, and subsections
- Clauses, paragraphs, and subparagraphs
- Schedules and annexes
- Definitions and interpretation provisions
Practical Exercise
- Analysing the structure of a sample statute
- Identifying the purpose and function of specific provisions
Day 2: Principles of Clear and Effective Legislative Language
Writing Clearly and Precisely
- Applying plain language principles to legislation
- Achieving precision and maintaining consistency
- Eliminating ambiguity and uncertainty
- Selecting appropriate legal terminology
- Optimising sentence structure and drafting style
- Avoiding unnecessary complexity and superfluous wording
Definitions and Interpretation
- Determining when definitions are necessary
- Drafting effective definition clauses
- Differentiating between general and specific definitions
- Maintaining consistency in the use of defined terms
- Interpretation provisions
Rights, Duties, Powers, and Prohibitions
- Drafting mandatory requirements
- Creating rights and entitlements
- Granting powers and authorities
- Establishing prohibitions and restrictions
- Appropriate use of modals such as "shall", "may", and "must"
Practical Exercise
- Rewriting unclear or ambiguous legal provisions
- Drafting basic rights, duties, powers, and prohibitions
Day 3: Drafting Legislative Provisions
Drafting Substantive Provisions
- Establishing clear legal rules
- Setting conditions and requirements
- Creating procedures and processes
- Drafting exceptions and qualifications
- Addressing discretion and administrative powers
Offences, Penalties, and Enforcement
- Basic principles for drafting offences
- Identifying prohibited conduct
- Drafting penalties and sanctions
- Enforcement provisions
- Preventing uncertainty in offence provisions
Administrative and Regulatory Provisions
- Appointments and responsibilities
- Licensing and approval provisions
- Regulatory powers
- Inspection and investigation powers
- Appeals and review mechanisms
Practical Exercise
- Drafting a set of legislative provisions based on a specific policy scenario
- Reviewing provisions for clarity, consistency, and legal effect
Day 4: Structuring, Reviewing, and Improving Legislation
Building a Legislative Framework
- Organising provisions logically
- Connecting related provisions
- Sequencing substantive and procedural rules
- Utilising cross-referencing effectively
- Drafting schedules and supporting provisions
Consistency and Legal Coherence
- Ensuring consistent terminology
- Avoiding internal contradictions
- Verifying internal references
- Identifying gaps and unintended consequences
- Ensuring alignment with existing legislation
Reviewing and Editing Draft Legislation
- Conducting a technical review of legislative text
- Identifying ambiguity and uncertainty
- Checking grammar and adherence to legislative style
- Testing provisions against practical scenarios
- Incorporating comments and amendments
Practical Workshop
- Reviewing a sample legislative draft
- Identifying drafting problems
- Redrafting selected provisions
- Facilitator feedback and group discussion
Day 5: Practical Legislative Drafting Workshop
From Policy to Legislation
- Understanding a policy instruction
- Identifying the relevant legal issues
- Determining the required legislative framework
- Translating policy objectives into legal rules
Drafting the Legislation
- Developing the legislative structure
- Drafting key provisions
- Preparing definitions and interpretation clauses
- Drafting powers, duties, procedures, and enforcement provisions
- Reviewing the overall consistency of the draft
Final Legislative Drafting Exercise
Participants will navigate a realistic scenario involving:
- Understanding the core policy objective
- Identifying the required legal provisions
- Developing a coherent legislative structure
- Drafting selected sections of legislation
- Reviewing and refining the draft
- Presenting and discussing the proposed provisions
- Receiving facilitator feedback
Requirements
- Hold a basic understanding of legal concepts and terminology.
- Be capable of reading and interpreting legal or regulatory documents.
- Possess foundational written and verbal communication skills.
- Have an interest in legislation, regulation, legal policy, or government and legal work.
- Basic experience in a legal, compliance, regulatory, policy, or administrative environment is advantageous but not mandatory.
Testimonials (2)
Fun to talk
Jihan Fadila - BAF
Course - Root Cause Analysis (RCA) for Internal Audit
Very practical. Trainer was very flexible in ensuring we meet our needs.
