Legislative Drafting Manuals Adopted by the Palestinian Government

Based on the memorandum of understanding between the Secretariat General of the Government and the Institute of Law (IoL) at BZU, concluded on 10 June 2010, the Palestinian Government has adopted the Primary Legislation Drafting Manual (of laws) and Secondary Legislation Drafting Manual (of regulations, bylaws and regulatory decisions.) These will be the official manuals to be used by line ministries and non-ministerial government bodies of the Council of Ministers in the drafting and development of primary and secondary legislation.

The IoL has compiled the primary and secondary legislation drafting manuals in cooperation with the Ministry of Justice’s Bureau of Legal Counsel and Legislation as well as with all relevant bodies. To discuss content, relevant workshops were organized with a view to come up with conclusions and recommendations that further enhanced and upgraded the manuals. Accordingly, the legislation drafting manuals provide a well-established approach to legal drafting.
 
It should be noted that the IoL established a Legislative Support Program as part of the ongoing efforts to modernize and unify the existing legal structures in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. One of the prerequisites for an effective legal system is a framework based on objective rules with institutions that consistently apply those rules. The main goals of the Program are to improve research capacity in legislative affairs, create a systematic procedure for legislative drafting, legislative review, harmonization of law in general, and to improve legislative drafting skills.