Years: 2000 (Program run through Boston University)

Funder: NGO - the Estonia Law Centre Foundation (organizer) funded by the Organization for Security and Co-peration in Europe (OSCE)

Project: This workshop was organized by an Estonia NGO affiliated with a leading university to discuss legislative theory and methodology. The workshop participants sought to harmonize Estonian and EU laws, understand the design of individual laws, and improve the ability of NGOs to develop their own legislative agenda and work on a political level. Participants sought to create a more organized forum for legislative drafting and to emphasize civil society involvement in legislative drafting and policy formation.

Participant number and learning method: The initial workshop lasted two days, and was attended by 75-100 civil servants and civil society representatives. During this initial workshop, participants drafted bills on health insurance and gender discrimination. Some workshop participants went on to participate in the 2002 session of the Distance Course, for which they wrote bills on enforcing judgements on money claims and the regulation of family property relations.

Political Environment: Integration into the EU has sapped considerable energy from the civil society sector, the effects of communism however are still felt, and civil society needs strengthening to participate effectively in law-making.

Current Status:

Workshop participants have gone on to develop country-specific training materials, and to lead trainings for The Estonia Law Center Foundation. These trainings have included:

• civil society roundtables preparing reports and presenting them to ministry officials to discuss changes in bills;
• ministerial and MP trainings; and
• issue-specific civil society round-tables for stakeholders.

The ELC is also attempting to develop a university training program in partnership with a local university.