Legislative Drafting Manuals Adopted by the Palestinian Government
Based on the memorandum of understanding between the Secretariat General of the Government and the Institute of Law (IoL) at Birzeit University, concluded on 10 June 2010, the Palestinian Government has adopted the Primary Legislation Drafting Manual (of laws) and Secondary Legislation Drafting Manual (of regulations, bylaws and regulatory decisions). These will be the official manuals to be used by line ministries and non-ministerial government bodies of the Council of Ministers in the drafting and development of primary and secondary legislation.
The IoL has compiled the primary and secondary legislation drafting manuals in cooperation with the Ministry of Justice’s Bureau of Legal Counsel and Legislation as well as with all relevant bodies. To discuss content, relevant workshops were organised with a view to come up with conclusions and recommendations that further enhanced and upgraded the manuals. Accordingly, the legislation drafting manuals provide a well-established approach to legal drafting.
It should be noted that the IoL established a Legislative Support Program as part of the ongoing efforts to modernize and unify the existing legal structures in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. One of the prerequisites for an effective legal system is a framework based on objective rules with institutions that consistently apply those rules. The main goals of the Unit are to enhance research capacity in legislative affairs, create a systematic procedure for legislative drafting, legislative review, and the harmonization of law in general, and to improve legislative drafting skills.
Upon numerous discussions with the Council of Ministers, different ministries, the President office and the legal department of the Palestinian legislative Council, the Program started in the year 2004 focusing on the legislative cycle in general with a particular focus on legislative review. The idea lies in systematizing the work of the Legislative Support Unit by working systematically and not only on particular demand concerning such areas as the empowerment of the legislator, legal and technical support, consultancy, research, information, policy harmonization for legislation. It also includes interaction with the legislative institutions and discussions about their organization and structure, and jurisdiction; the legislative operation (legislative policies, legislative drafting, promulgation and official publication); defining the legislative needs, policy formulation and technical drafting; and contact with the Palestinian legal community and legislative bodies to maximize the benefit of the IoL accumulative expertise in legislative drafting.
To date research has been undertaken on several topics such as the Palestinian Basic Law, legislation relating to children, labour law, planning and zoning in Palestine, social insurance, the preservation of cultural heritage, public health, the civil law, as well as the publication of a manual on legislative drafting, and a preliminary introductory review on legislative harmony and a publication on the management of the legislative process.
