International
Public consultation and law-making
Law-making in a democracy entails much more than the processing of draft laws by an elected Parliament. From early in the legislation cycle, public consultation should take place.The photograph above shows a training session being conducted in a village near to Waingapu, East Sumba, Indonesia in February 2008. Course participants (with assistance from Campbell Duncan), are interviewing local residents about simulated legislative policy proposals.
Quebec
The impact of proposed laws is an issue of importance in several contexts, for many stakeholders. Much impact analysis is limited to subordinate legislation – apparently on the basis that it implements policies which have already been determined (simplifying the task of analysing alternatives).
One jurisdiction to have devised a test for economic impact of proposed primary legislation is Quebec, Canada. We discuss this in our Legislation Newsletter # 4 of April 2010 (pdf file).
Other perspectives ...
One of our co-presenters during legislative drafting training in Indonesia in 2008 was Bivitri Susanti of the Indonesian Centre for the Study of Law and Policy (PSHK). Bivitri has noted down some reflections on the training — including the legislation cycle and public consultation. (Indonesian language - don't ask for a translation of “[...] jadi sudah lumayan biasa dengan segala tabiat dan body language dia yang lucu”).
Newsletter
Our October 2008 issue of Legislation Newsletter was an Indonesia-only special edition. It considered the possibilities and challenges of the Law on Making Laws, and reported on statistics on the cancellation of local laws by the Central Government.