Our Services
The Clinic provides the following legislative services to the clients in order of preference:
- Assistance with drafting substantive provisions of Bills, and amendments to legislation
- Independent review of the quality of legislation prepared by clients. Although we strongly recommend that clients issue us with policy instructions rather than a draft piece of legislation, we accept the reality of lay drafts in many Commonwealth jurisdictions
- Comparative research on legislative solutions adopted in other jurisdictions in response to similar problems
- Review of the impact and the effectiveness of draft legislation before and after it is made
Our main focus is on primary legislation. But we will also work with secondary legislation, if it is of particular significance for the client's jurisdiction. Our focus is substantive provisions. But we may on occasion also advise on repeals, consequential amendments, savings, or other transitional provisions.
All requests for assistance and all requested legislation must be in English. But we may on occasion have capacity to draft in other languages.
In view of the amount of work involved in the drafting of legislation, we will only be able to assist with small or medium sized drafting projects. As a rule of thumb, anything over 20 clauses long will exceed the capacity of the Clinic.
Legislative drafting is a technical and highly specialised discipline. Any draft legislation prepared by the Clinic should not be regarded as being immediately usable within any jurisdiction in the world. It will need to be fully checked by a qualified local drafter to ensure that it fits within the legislative and constitutional framework of that jurisdiction. Please also see our disclaimer.
If you want to use our services, please read the note on preparing instructions for the Clinic (PDF).
If you are unsure whether your proposal conforms with our criteria, please do we are happy to discuss this with you. Please feel free to contact us.
The Clinic may include information about services provided to individual clients on our website. If the client requests, any sensitive information will not be disclosed.
The Clinic reserves the right to refuse requests for assistance.
If you are interested in using our services, please complete and attach our Request for Services form to your message.