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The Legislative Drafting Process Guide is a presentation of the steps of legislative drafting. The Guide has been prepared for use by the ministries, in particular in their planning, enforcement, monitoring and evaluation of legislative projects. The Guide is also intended as an introduction to the work of legislative drafting.

Welcome / What is the Legislative Drafting Process Guide?

The Legislative Drafting Process Guide is a presentation of the steps of legislative drafting. The Guide has been prepared for use by the ministries, in particular in their planning, enforcement, monitoring and evaluation of legislative projects. The Guide is also intended as an introduction to the work of legislative drafting.

The Process Guide is based on the statutes, regulations and guidelines as well as best practice procedures concerning legislative drafting. The Guide is designed to serve as an aid in understanding the progression and stages of legislative drafting and in selecting the most appropriate procedures for each legislative project. As the Guide is intended for the Government as a whole, it does not cater for the differing organisations and internal policies of the various ministries.

The Process Guide addresses the preparation of national legislation within the ministries. The consideration of Government bills in Parliament is described in respect of the duties of the ministries. The Guide also addresses the implementation of EU legislation within the framework of national legislative drafting but the drafting of EU instruments is excluded from the scope of the Guide, as are the particulars of national legislative drafting carried out in order to implement international treaties and conventions.

The Process Guide is based on the legislative drafting process model prepared within the Ministry of Justice’s Effective Legislative Drafting project in the years 2010–2011. The process model was circulated to the ministries and to stakeholders for comments , on the basis of which the process model was adapted into this Process Guide by the Ministry of Justice.

How is the Process Guide used?

In the Process Guide, the progression of legislative drafting is presented in the form of workflow charts. The process descriptions in the charts may be examined from the general to the specific, or the process may be followed forwards or back. The associated text is displayed by bringing to the cursor to a section of the chart and clicking it.

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