Parliamentary Counsel
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Parliamentary Counsel are lawyers who prepare legislation that it is proposed to pass into law. The term Parliamentary draftsman (or draughtsman) is also widely used. These terms are used in relation to the United Kingdom parliament, and other parliaments on the Westminster model. The official title, and organization, of the parliamentary counsel varies between legislatures. For example, those who draft government legislation for the UK parliament form the Parliamentary Counsel Office (established in 1869 under the title of the Office of Parliamentary Counsel) while the Office of the Scottish Parliamentary Counsel drafts legislation for the Scottish Parliament. In the Republic of Ireland, there is an Office of the Parliamentary Counsel to Government. In Australia, each State, Territory and the Federal government has an Office of the Parliamentary Counsel.
The job of a parliamentary draftsman is to draft the detailed form of proposed laws, in a way that will accurately reflect the intentions of the politicians who are promulgating them, without leaving loopholes or producing perverse results. This is an almost impossible task, and the pursuit of exact and watertight legislation has often resulted in obscure and convoluted language. Such language has been criticised both by government bodies such as the Committee under Sir David Renton that reported in 1975 (and recommended drafting which was more based on principles than specific details to address every possible situation), and by pressure groups such as the Plain English Campaign. In 1982, on the proposal of Lord Denning, the Plain English Campaign gave their "Golden Bull" award for obscurity to the Chief Parliamentary Draughtsman for the following passage:
- 'An enactment in which section 31 (6) and (7) of the Criminal Law Act (1977) (pre-1949) enactments produced the same fine of maximum fine for different convictions shall be treated for the purposes of this section as if there were omitted from it so much of it as before 29th July, 1977, had the effect that a person guilty of an offence under it was liable on summary conviction to a fine or maximum fine less than the highest fine or maximum fine to which he would have been liable if his conviction had satisfied the conditions required for the imposition of the highest fine or maximum fine.' (Criminal Justice Act, 1982, section 38, sub-section 4)
In parliamentary discussion, the draftsman is rarely if ever referred to by name, but only as an office. However, the post has been held by a number of distinguished lawyers, for example Bernard O'Dowd in Australia, John Ferguson McLennan specialising in Scottish law (which though enacted entirely in the UK parliament from 1707 until 1999, is distinct from English law), and William Philip Schreiner in South Africa.
In the United Kingdom, the PCO is located at 36 Whitehall next to Horseguards' Parade.
[edit] References
- The preparation of legislation (1975). Cmnd. 6035 (The report of the Renton Committee).
- Zander, M. (2004). The law-making process, 6th edn. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-60989-5
