1. It is not sufficient for a law to look good on the books. An effective law must transform society.
2. Social problems arise, and continue, when individuals and institutions engage in undesirable patterns of behavior. Thus, resolving a social problem requires identifying, and modifying, the problematic behaviors of individuals and institutions.
3. In order to change the way someone behaves, it is first necessary to understand why they do what they do. The problem-solving methodology guides legislative drafters through an exploration of the various factors guiding, and constraining, individual choices. Drafters write legislation that addresses the reasons why people behave poorly. Only by changing the social, economic, and political factors that cause social problems to arise in the first place can legislation successfully induce individuals and organizations to behave in a socially preferred manner.
4. Legislation copied from one jurisdiction to another is ineffective at altering the underlying causes of problematic social behaviors and, therefore, fails to resolve social problems. However, the experiences of other developing and transitional countries in using law to facilitate democratic social change can be informative, and should be studied. In this course, you will take comparative legal experience into consideration in order to avoid common drafting errors, legislative oversights, and adverse effects.
