Law Drafting Guidelines (As of 2012)
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Annex to the Protocol Decision of the Government of the Republic of Armenia #13, Sitting of April 5, 2012 Law drafting guidelines PREAMBLE ................................................................................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined. SECTION 1. LAW-MAKING PROCESS .................................................................................................................. 11 CHAPTER 1. General overview of the law-making process ................................................................................. 11 CHAPTER 2. Process for developing primary legislation ...................................................................................... 14 2.1 Stages preceding adoption of the law ............................................................................................................ 14 2.1.1 Legislative policy development ............................................................................................................. 16 2.1.2 Development of the draft law ................................................................................................................ 18 2.1.3 Endorsment of the draft by the national executive bodies, public and other bodies, created by law ………….. .............................................................................................................................................. 20 2.1.4 Submission of the draft to the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Armenia for the state legal expert review ............................................................................................................................................ 22 2.1.5 Mandatory public consultations of the draft .......................................................................................... 22 2.1.6 Submission of the draft to the Government of the Republic of Armenia, reviewing the draft and its approval ................................................................................................................................................. 22 2.1.7 Submission the draft to the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia and adoption of the law by the National Assembly .................................................................................................................... 24 2.1.8 Signing of the law and its promulgation by the President of the Republic of Armenia ..................... 25 CHAPTER 3. The process of adoption of decrees and executive orders of the President of the Republic of Armenia ................................................................................................................................................................. 26 CHAPTER 4. The process of adoption of decisions of the Government of the Republic of Armenia ................. 28 CHAPTER 5. The process of adoption of decisions of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia ............. 31 CHAPTER 6. The process of adoption of agency-level regulatory acts ................................................................ 33 CHAPTER 7. The process of adoption of the regulatory acts of the local self-government bodies ..................... 35 SECTION 2. LEGISLATIVE DRAFTING TECHNIQUES ...................................................................................... 36 CHAPTER 8. General provisions, related to development of legal acts ................................................................ 36 8.1 Clarity and precision of the language of the legal acts ................................................................................. 36 8.2 Selection of words ........................................................................................................................................... 37 8.2.1 General principles related to selection of words .................................................................................... 37 8.2.2 Armenian as the language of legal acts ................................................................................................... 37 8.2.3 Use of “and, or” words .............................................................................................................................. 39 8.2.4 Definition of obligation ........................................................................................................................... 41 8.3 Logical structure and style of a legal act ....................................................................................................... 42 8.3.1 The logical structure of the legal act ....................................................................................................... 42 8.3.2 Use of the active and passive voices ....................................................................................................... 48 8.3.3 Use of the negative style .......................................................................................................................... 48 8.3.4 Use of pronouns ........................................................................................................................................ 48 8.4 The writing style and use of abbreviations ................................................................................................... 49 8.4.1 Abbreviations and abbreviations ............................................................................................................. 49 8.4.2 The use of toponyms in the legal acts ..................................................................................................... 50 8.4.3 Writing the numbers ................................................................................................................................ 50 8.5 Noting the terms .............................................................................................................................................. 53 8.6 Fonts, sizes and line spacing ........................................................................................................................... 53 CHAPTER 9. Use of references in legal acts ........................................................................................................... 54 CHAPTER 10. Techniques for basic law drafting ................................................................................................... 62 10.1 Title of the law .............................................................................................................................................. 62 10.2 Structural parts of the law............................................................................................................................. 63 10.2.1 Division of the law into structural units ............................................................................................... 63 10.2.2 Article and its component parts ............................................................................................................ 65 10.3 Overview of the structure of the law contents ............................................................................................ 67 10.4 Preamble of the law ...................................................................................................................................... 69 10.5 Definition of the subject, regulation and the scope of application of the law ........................................... 70 10.6 Definion of the concepts .............................................................................................................................. 71 10.7 Definition of the liability for breaching the norms of the law ................................................................... 72 10.8 Drafting of provisions on coming into effect and transitional provisions .................................................. 74 10.8.1 Stipulation of the term of the law coming into effect .......................................................................... 74 10.8.2 Stipulation of the duration of time-limited legal acts .......................................................................... 75 10.8.3 Drafting of concluding and transitional provisions .............................................................................. 76 CHAPTER 11. Techniques for drafting of the decions of the Government and Prime-Minister of the Republic of Armenia ................................................................................................................................................. 79 11.1 General principles of techniques for drafting of decisions of the Government and the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia ................................................................................................................... 79 11.2 Entitling decisions of the Government and the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia .................. 80 11.3 Preamble to decisions of the Government and the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia............. 81 11.4 Division of decisions of the Government and the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia by structural units ................................................................................................................................................. 82 CHAPTER 12. Techniques for drafting of agency-level regulatory acts and regulatory acts of the local self-government bodies ............................................................................................................................................