In 1996-8, the UNDP financed a Ministry of Justice project to help Lao PDR strengthen its drafting capacity through a combination of workshops and sending Ministry of Justice, Parliamentary staff and members of a law-training institute to Boston.   The 1998 Asian financial crisis, however, intervened, and the Laotian government accepted a World Bank initiative to finance outside experts to draft new laws.   Then, in early 2003, a Laotian team participated in the BU distance course to draft a law on the law-making process.   In late 2004, a new UNDP financed project invited us to conduct a two week workshop to review a Laotian team’s Manual for Drafters, written by Laotians in Laotian, and using Laotian examples, and also to review the draft Ordinance on Law-making; that workshop took place in Vientiane, Lao on May 9-20, 2005 with Ann Seidman, Robert Seidman and Lorna Seitz facilitating.  

May 2005 Workshop on the Law-Making Process

Workshop Aims
This legislative drafting workshop aimed to achieve three tasks:

1.  revising and improving the draft Laotian Manual on Legislative Drafting to improve its effectiveness as a teaching tool to assist Laotian drafters in learning to draft effectively implemented legislation for good governance and development;

2.  drafting a research report and improving the Lao Presidential Ordinance (2003) to ensure Laotian drafters and law-drafting institutions produce  legislation containing the specified criteria and procedures designed to ensure the transparency, accountability, and participation required to foster non-arbitrary law-making and effectively implemented measures to foster development ; and

3.  equipping workshop participants, all Lao Ministry of  Justice officials, with a sufficient knowledge of problem-solving legislative drafting theory, methodology and techniques, as well as teaching methods,  to enable them to provide leadership in institutionalizing an on-going learning process to produce the growing numbers of well-qualified drafters required to meet the drafting needs of the Lao Government ministries, parliamentary staff, and provincial and local governments.

Progress made
In the first week, participants strengthened their understanding of the problem-solving theory, methodology and techniques by using them in a learning-by-doing process, two groups worked to draft a research and bill to help resolve, respectively, two social problems: (1) the seemingly arbitrary drafting of various sometimes conflicting laws that too often proved unimplemented; and (2) the dumping of industrial waste into Vientiane’s water supplies. The third group of participants worked to improve the Lao Drafting Manual’s utility as a guide for drafters to design a bill, accompanied by a research report that would demonstrate the likelihood that the bill’s detailed provisions would overcome the problem addressed.

On Friday of the first week, senior government officials joined the workshop participants in a review of the potential use of problem-solving legislative theory, methodology and techniques, to strengthen drafting capacity and drafting institutions. In particular, the review stressed the importance of accompanying a bill by a research report.  By guiding the drafter in providing the relevant country specific, logically-organized facts, the review showed how legislative theory enables drafters to translate policy into the details of an effective law, and assists legislators and the general public to assess whether the bill’s detailed provisions will likely change the relevant problematic behaviors and thus help to resolve the social problem specified.   The participants generally expressed agreement that drafting a research report for important bills could help drafters and legislators to draft and assess bills likely to resolve significant social problems.

In the second week, the participants reorganized into three different groups. The members of the group revising the Drafting Manual continued to work together to revise their draft. In particular, they drafted the chapters describing the larger social context and the institutional problems confronting developing countries like Lao PDR; and the way problem-solving legislative theory and methodology serve to guide drafters in designing laws to transform the inherited institutions that foster poverty and poor governance. In addition, they introduced more examples of social problems confronting Lao in order to help the Manual’s users understand how to use legislative theory and methodology to identify and gather the relevant available country-specific evidence as a basis for research reports to demonstrate that their bills’ detailed provisions rested on facts and logic. Each of the two remaining groups addressed a different social problem addressed by the Ordinance. Lorna worked with drafters in revising the Lao Presidential Ordinance on the law-making process (2003), while Robert worked with a group of drafters to clarify hierarchy of laws issues.

Next Steps
Participants agreed to a series of next steps to complete those tasks as part of an on-going project to institutionalize a Lao learning process to strengthen Lao drafting capacity and law-making institutions. The next section reviews the next steps proposed.

Workshop participants will continue to work on improving the Laotian Manual for Drafters and Ordinance on Lawmaking, and will draft a research report to accompany the revised Ordinance on Lawmaking to describe difficulties with the current lawmaking process and explain the need for the proposed changes according to facts and logic. The participants will then discuss the Manual, Ordinance and report with relevant Ministry personnel and Parliamentary staffers, and the participants in the May 9-20 workshop hope to organize, and facilitate, a two-week workshop to draft three additional bills and research reports, as requested by the Minister of Justice. University lecturers will be included in the follow-up workshop, with the objective of developing a legislative drafting ‘clinic’ at the university that can draft legislation on behalf of the municipal and provincial governments.

Historical Overview of Boston University Project

Years: 1995-1997

Funder: UNDP http://www.undplao.org/ fo.lao@undp.org

Project: Few, if any, well-trained legal experts come out of the Lao education system. The Boston University Residential Program provided training in legislative theory, methodology and techniques, and arranged for assistance from additional consultants with expertise in comparative law and experience in three key areas (see below).

Participant numbers and learning method: four two-week workshops, involving over 100 participants in total, ncluding Ministry of Justice personnel and Parliamentary staff, and other ministerial personnel with knowledge of Laotian circumstances in relevant areas. Two groups of 4 Laotians in each, came to BU for four month residential program, including the deputy head of MoJ’s training institute, and a member of Parliamentary staff responsible for assisting MP s to work with their constituents.

Political Environment: Since economic crisis of 1997-8, government has slowed transition to market economy, in part viewing it as a threat to stability.

Bills Drafted: Procurement Law (passed) Land use, Check Bill, Mining, Electricity, Road transportation, Agriculture, Urban Planning, Local Administration, Manufacturing industry, Foreign Investment

Outcomes of the 1995-1997 Legislative Strengthening Project

Workshop Training led in country by former participants: A Ministry of Justice organizer earned an LLM, returned to Lao and gave leadership to two groups participating in the distance course in 2002. In 1997, this organizer oversaw former participants in BU Residence Program, as they facilitated a two-week workshop.

High-level government training: Workshops included Ministry of Justice personnel and Parliamentary staff. UNDP is continuing to work with the National Assembly in legislative strengthening.

Civil Society involvement: The Parliamentary staff person who attended BU residential program introduced some efforts to assist MPs to work more closely with their constituents, informing them about laws and asking their feedback.

University courses taught: Mr. Thanou Voravong, Deputy Director of Vientiane Law School, participated in the first group of visiting scholars attending the four-month Boston University Residence Program. He subsequently introduced legislative drafting courses at the Vientiane Law School.

Interdisciplinary university-based research centers: Unknown.

Training materials: UNDP is financing the translation of the Drafter's Manual. The Manual is being translated to incorporate country-specific examples.

Change in law-making institutions/Law on legislative process: An Ordinance on Law Drafting was passed, but did not address the required need for research to undergird and guide the legislative solution proposed. (Subsequent work is addressing this problem.)