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European Journal of Law Reform

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Issue 3, 2015 Expand all abstracts
Article

Access_open 13th Sir William Dale Memorial Lecture

Innovation and Continuity in Law Making

Authors Richard Heaton
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Richard Heaton
First Parliamentary Counsel and First Secretary to the Cabinet Office.
Article

Access_open Sir William Dale Annual Memorial Lecture

Is Legislation Literature?

Authors Sir Geoffrey Bowman
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Sir Geoffrey Bowman
Sir Geoffrey was the First Parliamentary Counsel 2002-2006. He is a Bencher of Lincoln’s Inn, has an honorary LLD degree of the University of London, and is a Senior Associate Fellow of the IALS.
Article

Access_open Delegated Legislation in Nigeria: The Challenges of Control

Keywords delegated legislation, parliament, control, quality, parliamentary scrutiny
Authors Jemina Benson LL.M
AbstractAuthor's information

    In considering how society generally is regulated, most times focus is always on Acts of parliament that are passed by the legislative arm of government. However, delegated legislation is another aspect of law making that is of immense importance for the regulation of any given society. This form of lawmaking being a deviation from the norm has some challenges in terms of control. This article seeks to examine some of these challenges emphasising that adequate parliamentary scrutiny will prevent the harbouring of bad-quality legislation.


Jemina Benson LL.M
Jemina Benson LL.M (University of London) is a legislative drafter for Rivers State House of Assembly in Nigeria. Email: jeminabenson@yahoo.com.

    Statutory interpretation is quickly becoming the primary function of our courts. Ambiguity, unexpected scenarios, and drafting errors in legislation compound this challenging task, obliging many judges to turn to debate transcripts and other legislative materials in search of our elected representatives’ intent.
    Legislatures are intrinsically the products of the societies that create them, however, with each possessing a diverging structure and rules of procedure. These institutional differences affect bills’ drafting, consideration, and passage, and represent the mechanical process of how legislative bargains are translated into binding statutory text.
    Through the lenses of the United Kingdom Parliament and the United States Congress, the fundamental logic behind these institutions’ legislative bargains will be explored, assessing the impact of procedure and the interests that shape the enacting process. Parliamentary tradition emphasizes the foundational role of Her Majesty’s Government in managing virtually all legislation, maintaining a unity of purpose without compromise, amendment, or purposefully ambiguous provisions. Conversely, unique procedures and the multiplicity of veto players within Congress necessitates that compromise is a de facto requirement for passage. The diverging logic behind these legislative bargains offers powerful evidence that institutional characteristics have a dispositive impact on the utility of legislative materials in statutory interpretation.


Chris Land
Juris Doctor Student, 2016, University of Minnesota Law School. LL.M., with distinction, Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, University of London; B.S., summa cum laude, Florida State University.
Article

Access_open Structure of Legislation: A Paradigm for Accessibility and Effectiveness

Keywords effectiveness of legislation, structure of legislation, accessibility of legislation, quality drafting, clarity
Authors Elohor Onoge
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    The aim of this article is to examine how the structure of legislation can nurture accessibility and effectiveness of legislation.
    It explores whether the legislative drafter in carrying out the task of drafting can nurture effective communication of the policy maker’s intent to the targeted audience by making use of the structure of legislation as a tool, to ensure the legislation is accessible to the end user, and foster effectiveness.
    The third and fourth stage of Thornton’s stages of the drafting process – design and composition – would be examined and also Peter Butt’s types of structure, which relates to the drafting of legal documents but would be applied in this paper, to the drafting of legislation.


Elohor Onoge
Elohor Onoge LLM is a Nigerian legislative drafter working for the Federal Parliament. Email: stephyrook@gmail.com.
Book Review

Access_open Book Review

Book Review

Access_open Book Review