Objectives:
This course provides students with:

• knowledge of the nature of legislative drafting and the role of the legislative drafter in the legislative process
• basic skills for drafting legislation
• an understanding of how the interpretation of legislation affects, and is affected by, legislative drafting techniques

Content:
Principal topics:

• what is legislation?
• the role of the legislative drafter
• legislative drafting techniques
• the role of parliamentary scrutiny committees
• legislative interpretation in the context of legislative drafting

• increase their knowledge of legislation and the legislative drafting process
• acquire some foundation skills in legislative drafting
• enhance their capacity to analyse and interpret legislation.

The proposed assessment will be 2 short "homework" exercises, an interpretation problem and a major assignment involving drafting a small bill.

Students must rely on the Approved Assessment which will be posted to the course homepage on the ANU Law website, prior to the commencement of the course.

26 Contact Hours (Intensive Delivery) - Six weekly evening sessions and one all-day session.

Click here for the 2010 timetable

• a legal qualification
• knowledge of law or legislation acquired in the course of non-legal studies
• professional experience working with legislation.  This need not be "legal" professional experience - for example, experience in government employment with the legislative process is fine.

LAWS8153 Introduction to Legal Reasoning and Research (non-lawyers); LAWS8568 Fundamentals of Government and Commercial Law (non-lawyers)

The challenge of legislative drafting is to express complex concepts in clear language, and to embody them in effective legal rules.

This course offers students a rare opportunity to gain an overview of a specialised area of government law, and to try their hand at developing some basic drafting skills.  The principal lecturers are professional legislative drafters.

It is a practical course.  All sessions involve both a lecture and a tutorial component.

Click here for fee and census date information