Legislative Drafting Guidelines | Legislative Drafting Guidelines | Linguistic Aspects (4-8)
Linguistic Aspects (4-8) Guideline 5

Guideline 4

Basic-units and sentences should be simple. Long basic-units, complicated sentences, and convoluted wording should be avoided.

4.1. The normative contents of the Act should be expressed in the Act’s basic-units, usually called sections or articles. Each basic-unit should contain a single provision expressing only one idea. A single basic-unit may, however, both enunciate and elaborate on a single idea.
 

Example A.

In an Act against the use of child soldiers, you should not write a single basic-unit to state the purposes of the Act and to set forth the new criminal penalties, prevention programs, victim assistance programs, and so on.

You may rather write one basic-unit to state the purposes of the Act, another to set forth the new criminal penalties, a third to set forth the prevention programs, a fourth to set forth the victim assistance programs, and so on.

4.2. Long basic-units must be split into easily assimilated subdivisions, following a logical progression, since an excessively compact block of text is hard for the eye to follow and the mind to absorb. This must not, however, result in sentences being either artificially or unduly broken up.
 4.2.1. It is not necessary for interpretation, nor desirable in the interests of clarity, for a single basic-unit to cover all aspects of an idea. It will often be preferable to deal with those aspects in several basic-units grouped together rather than in a single basic-unit.
 4.2.2. Particularly in the initial stages of the adoption process, basic-units should not be too complex in structure. Drafts and proposals for Acts (e.g. Bills) will be subject to deliberations and negotiations throughout the adoption process which, in most cases, will result in further additions and refinements. Subsequent amendments of the Act (often numerous) will also be difficult to insert if the basic-units are already over-complex.
  

Example A

In an Act creating a grant program for small businesses developing energy-efficient projects, you should not write a single basic-unit for the entire grant program, with subdivisions setting forth the purpose of the program, the authority for the program, the eligibility requirements, the application requirements, the criteria to be used for awarding grants, the monitoring and enforcement provisions, and so on..

You may rather write a series of basic-units, one for each of those aspects of the program.

Example B

You should not write:

‘‘4. The Government may take measures to derogate from paragraph 2, in respect of a given information society service, if the following conditions are fulfilled:

a) the measures shall be:

I)necessary for one of the following reasons:

public policy, in particular the prevention, investigation, detection and prosecution of criminal offences, including the protection of minors and the fight against any incitement to hatred on grounds of race, sex, religion or nationality, and violations of human dignity concerning individual persons;

the protection of public health;

public security, including the safeguarding of national security and defence;

the protection of consumers, including investors;

ii) taken against a given information society service which prejudices the objectives referred to in point (i) or which presents a serious and grave risk of prejudice to those objectives;

iii) proportionate to those objectives;

You may rather write:

‘‘4.1. The Government may take measures to derogate from paragraph 2, against a given information society service which prejudices  or presents a serious and grave risk of prejudicing, the following objectives:

  • public policy, in particular the prevention, investigation, detection and prosecution of criminal offences, including the protection of minors and the fight against any incitement to hatred on grounds of race, sex, religion or nationality, and violations of human dignity concerning individual persons;
  • the protection of public health;
  • public security, including the safeguarding of national security and defence;
  • the protection of consumers, including investors.

4.2. The measures indicated in subsection 4 may only be adopted when they are necessary and proportionate with regard to one of the objectives listed in subsection 4.1. 


Commentary: The disfavoured formulation has a uselessly convoluted syntactical structure, which does not correspond to the natural order of ideas. The favoured formulation is more easily understandable since it follows the natural order of ideas.

4.3. It is sometimes easier to draft complicated sentences rather than make the effort of synthesis necessary to achieve clear wording. However, this effort is essential in order to achieve a legislative text that can be easily understood, translated, and implemented.
 

Example A

You should not write:

‘If products do not satisfy the requirements laid down in Article 5, the Government shall take all necessary measures to restrict or prohibit the marketing of those products or to ensure they are withdrawn from the market, subject to administrative penalties for the other eventuality decided on by the government

 States.’

You may rather write :

‘If products do not satisfy the requirements laid down in Article 5, the Government shall take all necessary measures to restrict or prohibit the marketing of those products or to ensure they are withdrawn from the market.  The Government shall determine the administrative penalties to be applied in the

event of failure to comply with those restrictions, prohibitions or withdrawal from the market.’


Commentary: If you think your draft is clear but another person thinks it is complicated or confusing, you should not assume that you are right and the other person is wrong.

You should rather assume that your draft can always be made clearer, and if one person thinks it is complicated or confusing, there are many other people who will think so, too.
 
Linguistic Aspects (4-8) Guideline 5
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