Legislative drafting skills critical for development of the rule of law

The legislative drafter plays an important role in promoting the rule of law besides ensuring that the political values of the Commonwealth can be effectively translated into Commonwealth laws, says Mr Akbar Khan, Director of the Legal and Constitutional Affairs at the Commonwealth Secretariat.

He stressed that high quality legislative drafting is critical for building public confidence in the justice system. Mr Khan believes that investment is vital for the training of legislative drafters to hone their valuable skills for national development.

He will speak on the need for a coherent national and regional strategy to build capacity in legislative drafting in an address to the First African Commonwealth Association of Legislative Council (CALC) Conference from 7 to 8 April 2010 in Abuja, Nigeria. The event will take place in conjunction with the Commonwealth Regional Law Conference.

The CALC Conference which bears the theme Towards Uniformity of Legislation in the Commonwealth will provide an opportunity for legislative drafters to network, share ideas, challenges and best practices on issues such as anti-corruption, the transformation of treaties, clarity of language and emerging trends in legislative drafting.

“The Forum is a useful way to enhance the involvement of legislative drafters in the development of Africa which will help enhance democratic governance and the rule of law, as well as regional integration,” Mr Khan told Commonwealth News.

“There is a shortage of qualified and experienced legislative drafters in the Commonwealth, particularly in smaller jurisdictions where resources are limited, remuneration is poor and the work is overwhelming while the recognition is lacking. A common practice is for lawyers to multi-task and undertake a range of duties including legislative drafting.

“This aggravates the problem of recruitment and retention of legislative drafters. This does not help in the revision or development of laws, or the ratification and implementation of international conventions into national laws.

“The Commonwealth Secretariat is making efforts to build institutional capacity of member countries by providing training and technical assistance via Commonwealth experts to help member countries fill gaps in legislative drafting.”

Commonwealth experts are deployed in member countries through the Commonwealth Fund for Technical Co-operation (CFTC). At present, the Commonwealth Secretariat has placed more than a dozen CFTC legal experts in member countries, including legislative drafters, for a period of between two and three years, depending on the level of need by the host country.

Secretariat Links:

• Rule of Law
• Country Profile: Nigeria