Responsibilities of Drafters

Responsibilities of Drafters

Legislative Counsel (to give drafters a title more fitting to their importance) are pivotal players in the legislative process. If legislative drafting is important, those who practice it must play a central role. If legislation of high quality is essential, those who have the capacity to produce it must be crucial figures.

In one sense, drafting is a technician's job, because it involves practical writing skills. But it is far more than that. It is creative work of the kind that makes demands on the intellect and analytical skills rather than

functional talents or artistic flair. It depends upon a foundation of legal knowledge and ability and a capacity to use and develop legal concepts and to foresee and counter legal problems.

In the Course on Drafting Process, we look more closely at the procedures for preparing legislation and the part that the drafter plays in them. For the moment, it is sufficient to outline the drafter's functions and to underline the range of tasks to which they give rise. These are set out in the following chart.