Sir William Dale Centre for Legislative Studies

	Ukraine Legislative Drafting Project Проект підтримки нормопроектування в Україні
	A project funded by
2001-2005 The Ukraine Legislative Drafting Project Project has now been completed Launch Brochure

 

Introducing the Legislative Drafting Project

In April 2001 Dr. Helen Xanthaki, Academic Director of the Sir William Dale Centre for Legislative Studies (CLS), and Dr. Constantin Stefanou, IALS Research Fellow, were awarded by the Department for International Development (DFID) £747,075 for the implementation of a three-year project (now extended to four years) aiming to provide assistance to the government of Ukraine in the field of legislative drafting.

The Legislative Drafting Project (LDP) in Ukraine, managed by the Sir William Dale Centre of the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (IALS), run for 4 years from May 2001 to April 2005 and utilised up to £747,075 of British development partnership funding for Ukraine.

Why was the CLS selected for the implementation of the Project?

The CLS was selected for the implementation of this project as there is no other suitable British centre of legislative drafting that covers drafting requirements in civil law countries in depth and is organised to provide the kind of tailored training required and in-country capacity development in legal drafting in Ukraine.

In fact, in the Project Memorandum DFID remarks that "...The UK is fortunate in being able to draw on the services of CLS in the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (University of London), which is a major international centre of legal drafting training, particularly bringing together civil and common law traditions in drafting and concentrating on the approximation of national legislation to EU requirements. They are therefore ideally suited -in a sense working on behalf of European Union member countries- in this field..."

Aims of the Project

Within the Super Goal of strengthening the role of law and the framework regulating state power in Ukraine, the Project's goal was to develop the contribution of legislation to effectiveness, consistency, openness and accountability in Ukrainian government policy making and policy implementation. The Project's purpose was to improve the training capacity in the Ministry of Justice, Centre for Legal Reform and Legislative Drafting (CLRLD) and the quality of legislative texts in a minimum of five key institutions: Supreme Rada; Government Secretariat; and Ministries of Justice, Economy and Finance. The Project, therefore, covered the national law making assembly and one of the two main decree issuing institutions with a possibility of including the President's Administration as the Project develops.

The LDP addressed six key weaknesses in Ukrainian legislative drafting, common to most countries under transition:

1. The lack of consistency and the contradictions in legislation, which is produced by different drafting teams and sources of legislation, in the absence of one uniform set of rules for legal drafting.
2. The dissimilar legal drafts produced by donor support, using the drafting technique of each donor's jurisdiction.
3. The current difficulties of the Ukrainian government in achieving approximation of the Law of Ukraine with the Law of the European Union.
4. The low degree of understanding and application of the principles of democracy, constitutionality, ethics and good governance in the legislative process.
5. The exploitation of the socially and financially vulnerable, which is inherent in the complexity, opaqueness and regressive impact of much legislation.
6. The facilitation of corruption by contradictions and loopholes in current legislation.

How did we go about achieving the Project goals?

The Project produced the following outputs to counter these weaknesses:

(i) Enhanced legislative drafting training capacity in the Centre for Legal Reform and Legislative Drafting in the Ministry of Justice - currently the only centre offering basic training for legislative drafters in Ukraine.

(ii) A well-trained training team in drafting that can operate in the Centre for Legal Reform and Legislative Drafting or in specific training assignments in the five key target institutions (Supreme Radha; Government Secretariat; Ministries of Justice, Economy and Finance - the Ministry of Finance was also added in 2003).

(iii) A set of legislative drafting rules and guidelines that if applied properly will help to produce clear, consistent, unambiguous legislative text in Ukraine.

(iv) Legislative drafts and legislation that exhibit three essential characteristics:

• clarity and easy understanding that reduce or rule out opportunities for exploiting the poor and vulnerable and denying them rights and entitlements;
• application of the principles of democracy, constitutionality, ethics and good governance;
• absence of contradictions and loopholes that allow corruption to flourish through legislation.

(v) Guidelines and best practice examples that can be used in the task of approximating Ukrainian legislation to EU Law.

What were the main activities of the Project?

The main activities of the project over the four years were:

Training 60 Ukrainian legal draftsmen in a specially designed 8 week in-service course for 20 participants in each of the three years, organised and held in London by the Sir William Dale Centre for Legislative Studies (CLS) of the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (University of London).

Training 15 Ukrainian trainers of legal draftsmen in an additional specially designed programme on training techniques in legal drafting held in London at CLS.

A series of short introductory and promotional lectures on legislative drafting in Ukraine, coupled with a small number of specialist two day seminars in key aspects of legal drafting or on drafting problems in specific areas of Ukrainian legislation, run by joint teams of British and Ukrainian legal drafting trainers and gradually handed over to Ukrainian trainers during the course of the Project.

Support for strengthening training capacity in the CLRLD: one or two study tours to the UK and for the Director and a key member of staff; assistance in developing new course modules and case studies; library and training material resource strengthening; and provision of a small amount of training equipment and an Internet link.

Preparation and printing or internet circulation of two key guidance documents: a manual on legal drafting in Ukraine; and guidance on the principles and techniques involved in EU legal approximation.

Who were the stakeholders and beneficiaries?

The main stakeholders were the political decision makers and administrators in Government ministries, agencies and commissions together with similar groups in regional and municipal governments. The initial focus was on the Government Secretariat, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Economy, the Ministry of Finance and the Supreme Rada (Parliament), selected because of their strategic importance in law production in Ukraine.

The main beneficiaries were the people of Ukraine who will find 'better' laws, easier to understand and apply in terms of their rights and entitlements. Clear and unambiguous laws increased citizens' chances of securing justice through the courts and through various administrative tribunals.

Work Programme

Each year the CLS organised an 8-weeks specialised course held in London for 20 Ukrainian legislative drafters. This full time programme outside Ukraine allowed complete concentration on the requirements in a new approach to legal drafting: philosophy; principles; techniques of drafting. The in-depth exposure was required to reform ideas and practice. This specialised course was coupled with a supplementary intensive training programme for 5 high ranking Ukrainian drafters who will become trainers within their own institutions. Participants in legal drafting training were only be selected if there was some guarantee that they would subsequently stay involved in legal drafting and be available to take part in follow up seminars and training courses in the Ukraine. The Training of Trainers Course was supplemented by joint work with experienced British legal drafting trainers in short seminars on drafting topics in Ukraine.

Guidance materials were created: a general legislative drafting manual on best practice; and guidelines and practical case study examples of successful EU approximation. These documents and/or website productions were widely circulated and popularised.

How was the project managed from the London side?

The technical director of the LDP was Dr. Helen Xanthaki, Academic Director of the CLS. Helen was responsible for the overall professional direction of the project plus the organisation of the London based legislative drafting and training of trainers courses. She also had overall responsibility for the preparation of the guidance documents on legislative drafting and EU approximation and for decisions on the nature of the in-Ukraine training programme, working with the Senior Project Officer and the Ukrainian Project Team.

The Senior Project Officer was Dr. Constantin Stefanou, currently a Senior Lecturer at the IALS. Constantin was responsible for the overall administration of the project and in particular for coordinating British and in-Ukraine activities - selection and movement of participants; movement of British specialists to Ukraine; participation in in-Ukraine training activities; supply of various kinds of institutional strengthening support to the CLS and the CLRLD.

The third member of the London based team was Christine Murray, who as the Project Officer/Administrator, was responsible for supporting the Project Coordinator and Senior Project Officer in all aspects of administration. Christine also took major responsibility for the preparation of the manual and the organisation of the in-UK training activities and liaison with the financial officers of the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies.

A team of IALS Professors, Research Fellows, Research Associates and permanent IALS personnel ensured that the project was implemented efficiently and that the quality of services was not below the usual excellent standard of services provided by IALS. Prof. Barry Rider, the former DIrector of the IALS, supervised the Project and was a member of the Steering Committee. Prof. Avrom Sherr, the current Director of the IALS, Woolf Professor of Legal Education, and his team provided training on legal education to the Ukrainian trainers. A large number of Fellows and Associates lectures on the course. Mr. David Phillips, Ms. Monica Humble and their team looked after the accounts.

How was the Project managed from the Ukrainian side?

In Ukraine Mrs Olena Semiorkina the Director of the Centre for Law Reform and Legislative Drafting (CLRLD) of the Ministry of Justice, was the Deputy Project Coordinator. The CLRLD's extensive expertise in legislative drafting in Ukraine and beyond ensures that the Project is implemented in a manner efficient for Ukraine and that the professional design of the Project utilises resources in the best possible manner. The CLRLD was created by Presidential Decree No.198/94 as approved by the Decree by the Cabinet of Ministers No.780/1994. It is an independent state budgeted legal entity based in the Minister of Justice with its Director reporting to the Ministry of Justice Ukraine. It has its own legal address and both Ukrainian and foreign currency bank accounts. The CLRLD includes an Administrative Unit, a Methodology of Legislative Drafting Unit, an International Relations Unit and a library. The CLRLD is involved in legal drafting; it develops policy papers for the Ministry of Justice; it publishing a number of papers as well as legal acts; it carries out a number of donor funded projects: two principal examples are a US funded project on money laundering and a SIDA funded anti-corruption project; the CLRLD also cooperates with the Council of Europe. The School for Legislative Drafting holds training events, and publishes papers with relevance to legislative drafting and procedures.

Ms Anna Dolmatove was our full time Ukrainian Administrator (having taken over from Mr. Eugene Bereznitzky). Anna is based in CLRLD and made sure that all aspects of project administration in Ukraine worked smoothly: recruitment and movement of participants to UK courses; visits by UK specialists to take part in in-Ukraine training activities; organisation and recruitment to these in-country activities; receipt and deployment of training and other resources for the CLRLD; arrangements for publicity; and organisation of Steering Committee meetings in Kiev.

To assist in project implementation, there was a Steering Committee made up of representatives of the Minister of Justice, the Supreme Rhada, the Government Secretariat, the British Embassy in Kiev, the EU delegation in Ukraine, Prof. Barry Rider (as the Director of IALS) and the Director of the CLRLD. The Committee promoted and publicised the project; advised on the criteria and selection of course participants; similarly advised on the subject matter and nature of the in-country training and seminar activities; helped in the utilisation of legal drafting trainers in a cost effective manner; and acted as a mechanism for evaluating impact and assisting in future planning in the detail of the work programme.

How was our performance evaluated?

DFID conducted inspections of our facilities and had the right to follow any lecture in London and any in-country seminar. Annual reports on progress were submitted and all activities were undertaken in consultation with our Ukrainian partner and DFID. DFID had appointed a Project Officer and a Senior Governance Adviser from EECAD, DFID in London to liase and monitor the LDP progress and impact. An Officer from the Development Section of the British Embassy in Kiev was responsible for close liaison and monitoring of in-country Project activities and impact.