Abstract
The chapter summarises traditional teachings in legislative drafting, and identifies five misconceptions. Misconception 1: drafting conventions always lead to quality. But the phronetic nature of drafting prevents nomoteleia of drafting conventions. Misconception 2: Legislative quality rests in a vacuum. But the interconnectivity between policy, law, and legislative expression render their interdependence profound and critical. Misconception 3: legislative quality is undefinable. But effectiveness is a prominent definition of legislative quality. Misconception 4: effectiveness always leads to legislative quality. But legislation suffers from inherent limits: its interconnection and reliance to regulation, the limits of legislation as written communication, and the intrinsic aversion of users to legislative texts. Misconception 5: in view of the unsurpassable limits of legislative texts, legislative quality should not be pursued further. But there is hope ahead, such as the layered structure of legislative texts, the use of image in legislative texts, and the restructuring of the statute book as a whole.
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Notes
- 1.
See Xanthaki (2013a, pp. 145–162).
- 2.
See Rose (1959, p. 470).
- 3.
On this topic, see further Xanthaki (2013b, pp. 128–143).
- 4.
Statement of the Leader of the House of Commons on 8 March 2007.
- 5.
- 6.
House of Lords Select Committee on Constitution, Fourteenth Report, 2004, http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200304/ldselect/ldconst/173/17302.htm, chapter 4, 89.
- 7.
- 8.
Cf. also Chap. 13 in this volume.
- 9.
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Xanthaki, H. (2019). Misconceptions in Legislative Quality: An Enlightened Approach to the Drafting of Legislation. In: Oliver-Lalana, A. (eds) Conceptions and Misconceptions of Legislation. Legisprudence Library, vol 5. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-12068-9_2
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