International Consortium for Law and Development

Knowledge in the Service of Democratic Social Change

Africa's Challenge HOT OFF THE PRESS!!!

From the back cover: "The African continent exceeds in size and natural resources the combined territories of Europe, the United States and China, yet most Africans must struggle for bare survival. The authors of this book's chapters describe different African countries' experiences, underscoring the need to use law to transform Africa's inherited institutions. Chapter 2 outlines the institutionalist legislative theory and methodology as a guide for designing laws to achieve good governance and people-oriented development."

Editors: Ann Seidman, Robert B. Seidman, Pumzo Mbana; Contributors: Raymond Atuguba, Teodosio Uate, Neva Makgetla, Lucian Ng'andwe, Christopher Annear

Excerpts available: Table of Contents Chapter 1

To purchase a copy of Africa's Challenge, please contact the publisher, Africa World Press, Inc. at: P.O. Box 1892, Trenton, NJ 08607, USA; or P.O. Box 48, Asmara, Eritrea.

A Manual for Drafters

The Seidmans together with their co-author, Nalin Abeysekere, for two decades the Legal Draftsman of Sri Lanka, lay out the strategy for their learning process in their comprehensive manual entitled, Legislative Drafting for Democratic Social Change: A Manual for Drafters, (publisher: Kluwer Law International, London 2000). Already, it has been translated into several languages. According to its authors, the document covers three principal areas: The gathering of essential information and writing a research report that uses facts and logic to demonstrate that, in the country's unique conditions, the proposed bill will likely work; hands on techniques for drafting the bill's actual detailed provisions; and drafting to enhance the rule of law. You may purchase a copy of the English version of the Manual from the authors for $30. To order, please e-mail rseidman@bu.edu. This Manual has also been translated into Arabic, Russian, Chinese, Bahassa Indonesia, Sinhalese, and Vietnamese, and is being translated into Macedonian. If you would like to obtain a copy in any of these languages, please let us know. Make your check payable to the International Consortium for Law and Development, P.O. Box 422, Boston University Station, Boston, Massachusetts 02215. To pay through the PayPal system, click here.

Assessing Legislation

You, law-makers, NGO personnel and others can now – free of charge-- obtain our new Manual, Assessing Legislation - a Manual for Legislators. Click here to see the Table of Contents.

This new Manual aims to enable legislators -- even if they have no previous training in legislation -- to read and to assess a bill in terms of the public interest – that is, inlight of rational argument, grounded in facts and logic. We hope it will prove useful for members of parliaments and their staffs, and others concerned with ensuring enactment of legislation to facilitate good governance and effective development. It constitutes a companion piece for Legislative Drafting for Democratic Social Change - A Manual for Drafters ( see Manual for Drafters on this website).

You may print and distribute as many copies of this new manual as you wish, either for your own use, or for participants in workshops focused on assessing legislation. We would appreciate

it if you, and the people with whom you work in various countries, would make suggestions for improving the Manual. Only so can we improve the Manual, and, more broadly, deepen legislative theory.

Directions for downloading the Manual:
You will have to download each chapter separately. To view and download the chapters, Adobe Acrobat Reader v3.01 or greater is required. If you don't have it installed on your computer, please click here to download a free Acrobat Reader and follow instructions.

• Manual Cover
• Table of Contents
• Chapter 1
• Chapter 2
• Chapter 3
• Chapter 4

 • Chapter 5
• Chapter 6
• Chapter 7
• Chapter 8
• Chapter 9
Click here to download an Arabic version of Assessing Legislation from the United Nations' website.

Facilitators' Guide for Conducting Workshops on
Legislative Drafting for Democratic Change

This workshop handbook provides a guide, including a daily schedule, for a two week ‘learning-by-doing’ process for government ministry, legislative staff, and non-government organization personnel. The workshop participants will engage in drafting real bills, accompanied by research reports to demonstrate that their detailed provisions will likely to help resolve real social problems in their own country. In that process, the participants will begin to learn the institutionalist legislative theory, methodology, and techniques necessary to draft legislation effectively implemented.

Click to view the handbook for a two-week workshop
You may download this handbook free of charge. We would appreciate it if you would let us know whether you have found this handbook useful. Please send us comments and suggestions for improving it. E-mail Prof. Ann Seidman at: aseidman@bu.edu, or Prof. Robert Seidman at: rseidman@bu.edu

If you decide to copy and distribute any of our publications, please send us an e-mail at aseidman@bu.edu to let us know who the materials will be shared with, and how they will be used. We are eager to know how well this method of circulation works, how many people are using our materials and how our materials are being used. We would also appreciate it if you would ask those who receive our materials for comments and suggestions for improvement. We are continually developing new materials in response to colleagues' needs and suggestions. Thank you for your assistance.