Introduction
acknowledgements
We wish to acknowledge the many Parliaments and scholars from Africa that contributed to drafting the Guidelines and bringing them to fruition, with their many comments and suggestions. In particular, we are very grateful to Justice Crabbe, the mentor of "legislative drafters" in Africa, who has honoured us with his advice and with an inspiring Foreword to the Guidelines.
We would like to thank as well the EU-institutions who have kindly allowed us to use their drafting Guide ("Joint Practical Guide of the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission for Persons Involved in the Drafting of Legislation within the Community Institutions (ISBN 92-894-4063-5)"), as the model for the Guidelines for Africa.
We are grateful to the European Parliament also for the numerous revisions and the advice provided during the drafting of the Guidelines, and for for the translation of the Guidelines in French, Portuguese and Spanish.
We also express our gratitude to the Senate of France, the House of Lords of the United Kingdom and the National Assembly of Portugal for their support and advice, to the People's Assembly of Egypt for the translation in Arabic and to the European University Institute and the University of Pretoria for their support and hospitality.
Finally, our thanks go to the Editorial Team who have shepherded these Guidelines through to completion with both expertise and passion, in alphabetical order: Christo Botha, Tobias Dorsey, Monica Parlmirani and Giovanni Sartor.
We thank you, all contributors, for your passion and dedication without which these Guidelines would not have been possible.
Africa i-Parliament Action Plan,
a project funded by
United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs.
rationale
African legal sources, and in particular legislation, are getting more and more complex. Increasingly intricate systems of norms and references are created, as new Acts and amending Acts produce multiple, overlapping, rapidly changing layers of legislation and as national legislatures take into account other (local, regional, and international) sources of law.
At the same time, we are currently witnessing the transition from paper to digital documents and records, resulting in unprecedented opportunities for better lawmaking. Information and communication technologies can provide African legislatures, courts, and other public institutions, as well as private enterprises, individuals and other stakeholders, with the tools to properly manage the proliferation of legislation in ways that satisfy the needs of all.
Under these conditions, better lawmaking has become a strategic component in the move toward the rule of law and good governance in Africa. Legislative Acts complying with principles of good legislative drafting on the one hand can be easily and clearly understood, and on the other hand can be effectively processed though advanced information and communication technologies. Good legislative drafting, combined with appropriate information technologies, can provide all stakeholders with the legal information they need, and in particular can enable citizens and operators to identify precisely their rights and obligations and courts to enforce the laws effectively. Moreover better lawmaking, on the basis of consistent legislative practices, can greatly facilitate the harmonisation of laws in Africa.
The Legislative Drafting Guidelines for Africa, by defining the common structural elements of legislation according to principles of good legislative drafting and legislative informatics, aim at providing African Parliaments with a shared approach to better legislation. Their adoption by all African Parliaments can contribute to the quality of African legislation, the harmonisation of African laws, and the development of advanced legal information services in Africa.
scope
The “Legislative Drafting Guidelines for Africa” aim at providing a set of principles and best practices for drafting both primary and secondary legislation.
The Guidelines promote a commitment to improving the quality of lawmaking and to achieving simplicity, clarity and consistency in the laws of African parliaments.
The Guidelines are neither binding nor exhaustive, and are not intended to override the legislative conventions and official drafting manuals of the respective countries. They can, however, promote a convergence of practices beneficial for the harmonisation of law in Africa. They are intended to serve as a reference for all bodies involved in the process of drafting legislation in Africa.
It is hoped that the Guidelines will assist all those involved, in any way, in drafting legislation within the institutions of the African Union. The Guidelines aim to make African legislation as clear, simple, concise and understandable as possible. They provide criteria against which the drafting of legislation may be checked, to enable citizens to understand the objectives of the laws and the means to achieve them, but also to ensure that the laws can be more easily processed by information and communication technologies.
logo
The logo of the Legislative Drafting Guidelines comes from the Akan people of West Africa. It is the "nyansapo" ("wisdom knot"), symbol of wisdom, ingenuity, intelligence and patience. An especially revered symbol of the Akan, this symbol conveys the idea that a wise person has the capacity to choose the best means to attain a goal.
We think that it may well represent the ambitions of the Guidelines that want to promote a commitment to improving the quality of lawmaking and to achieving simplicity, clarity and consistency in the laws of Africa.
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