Week 1Welcome to Legislative Drafting for Democratic Social Change. In this course you will “learn by doing”. The major assignment has two components. First, each participant is required to draft a priority bill. Second, the bill must be accompanied by a research report that describes the social problem the bill is designed to resolve, explains the causes of the social problem and demonstrates a likelihood that the bill (the legislative solution) will be effectively implemented. This assignment (bill and research report) is facilitated by completing a series of weekly exercises based on taped lectures and readings that provide step-by-step instruction in legislative theory, methodology and techniques. The goal of the course is to learn how to draft legislation that facilitates institutional transformation that fosters democratic social change. Lesson objectives for this week This course focuses on how law-making in general, and legislative drafting in particular, can facilitate good governance and development, particularly in developing and transitional countries. The principal question addressed in the course materals is this: How may a drafter formulate a law that changes behaviors to facilitate good governance and development? In order to answer this question, one needs to consider an even more basic question: Why do people behave as they do in the face of a rule of law? You will find it helpful to keep these questions in mind over the coming weeks. The objective this week is to understand your role as a drafter in the larger process of development and transition. The term “drafter”, as used in this course, is given a broad meaning which encompasses two interrelated tasks: first, to know how to translate policy into law that is effective in changing behaviors; and second, to employ writing techniques that produce clear, unambiguous laws accessible to a wide readership beyond judges and lawyers. Assignments
|