EDITED BY DR. TONYE CLINTON JAJA SENIOR RESEARCH FELLOW, NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR LEGISLATIVE STUDIES, ABUJA, NIGERIA, IN HONOUR OF PROF.ABUBAKAR OLANREWAJU SULAIMAN.D.G.NILDS

THE BOOK WAS REVIEWED BY PROF. ABIODUN AMUDA-KANNIKE SAN, PIONEER DEAN, FACULTY OF LAW, KWARA STATE UNIVERSITY, MALETE VIA ILORIN, KWARA STATE, NIGERIA, WHICH EVENT TOOK PLACE AT NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR LEGISLATIVE AND DEMOCRATIC STUDIES (NILDS) ABUJA ON 15TH OCTOBER, 2024

E-mail Address: amudakannikeabiodun@gmail.com

TITLE: AN INTRODUCTION TO COMPARATIVE LEGISLATIVE DRAFTING

AUTHOR: DR. TONYE CLINTON JAJA

PUBLISHER: D90K-Z PRODUCTION ENT

PAGES: 317

PRICE: NOT STATED

1.0       INTRODUCTION:

The need for continuous writings and intellectual discourse on legislative drafting cannot be over-emphasized because, it is a specialize area of intellectual knowledge and profession including the fact that the law must continuously fit properly into the changing trend of the globalized world.

2.0       Book review

A book review is a thorough description, critical analysis and or evaluation of the quality meaning, and significance of a book, often in relation to prior research on the topic. Reviews generally ranged from 500-1000 words, but may be longer or shorter depending on the length and complexity of the book being reviewed. The overall purpose of the review is whether the review is a comparative analysis examining two or more books that focus on the same topic. Professors assign book reviews as practice in carefully analyzing complex scholarly texts and to assess the ability to effectively synthesize research so that you reach an informed perspective about a research problem or issues.[1]

There are two general approaches to reviewing a book;

  1. Descriptive review: presents the content and structure of a book as objectively as possible, describing essential information about a book’s purpose and authority.
  2. Critical review: describes and evaluate the book in relation to accepted literary and historical standards and support this evaluation with evidence from the text and in most cases, in contrast to and in comparison with the research of the other.[2]

3.0       Descriptive /description

The book as could be seen is titled “ an introduction to comparative legislative drafting:” Essays in Honour of the Director General of National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies, NILDS, Prof. Abubakar .O. Sulaiman. This book is important for judges, lawyers/legal practitioners, legislatures Researchers, academics and members of the public.

We had earlier shown that the Author, Dr. Tonye Clinton Jaja, is an astute legal-practitioner, a brilliant academic and a Researcher to the core, and to show his preference for hard work, he has the following Degree certificates;[3]

  1. Bachelor of laws (LL.B) (hons) between October, 1998-March, 2023.
  2. Bar Certificate B.L (Hons) October 2003-october, 2004.
  3. Master of laws (LL.M) (Hons) legislative Drafting October 2005-september, 2006.
  4. Doctor of philosophy (Ph.D) in law, institute of Advance legal Studies, School of Advanced Study, (SAS), and University of London in August 31st, 2013.

Furthermore, it is not in doubt that Dr. Tonye Clinton Jaja has written several articles and published books and out of the numerous books are the followings;

  1. Access to justice in Sharia Courts, reviewed in Cambrian Law Review VOL37, 2006, Aberst wyth University, United Kingdom.
  2. “A Dichotomy of legislative Drafting and Law making Terms” Germany Academic Publishers July, 2012.

iii.        Legislative Drafting: An introduction to modern Theories and Principles (Oisterwijk, the Netherland, Wolf Legal Publishers, August, 2012.

  1. “Legislative Drafting office as a tool for Regional Integration: A comparative study of EU and ECOWAS” in L. Hamalai (ed) 40 years of regional integration by the ECOWAS. A Book of reading (Abuja: National institute of Legislative Studies, 2015).
  2. Legislative Drafting and Statutory interpretation: An introduction (Lagos: MALTHOUSEPRESS 2015).
  3. Legislative Drafting Consultant, National institute of Legislative Studies, Abuja, 2015.

The Author did a perfect work by producing a 10 chapter book which are in the following order;

  1. Introduction.[4]
  2. “Ethiopia’s legislative drafting: A bird’s eye view”.[5]

iii.        Basic features of legislative drafting under the Islamic Law of Saudi –Arabia.[6]

  1. Basic features of legislative drafting style of biblical Law.[7]
  2. Legislative Drafting style in transitory jurisdiction- case study of Japan Civil law to common law 4.[8]
  3. Some commonalities and similarities amongst the different drafting styles.[9]
  4. Legislative Bijuralism: Its foundation and its application.[10]
  5. Legislative Drafting style of the economic Community of west African States (ECOWAS) parliament.[11]

vii.       Legislative Drafting as a tool for regional Integration: A comparative study of the ECOWAS and EU.[12]

viii.      African Union Legal Drafting, Process, Mechanisms and Challenges.[13]

We can see from the chapters mentioned that the Author / Editor has done great work as far as this book is concerned, commencing from the introduction which was perfectly dealt with highlighting the importance of the study of legislative drafting vis-à-vis drafting styles, modern taxonomy of drafting and legislative drafting styles among other issues discussed.

With respect to chapter 2, the Author did excellent work by enlightening us on the issue of “Ethiopia’s legislative drafting, this chapter disclosed legislative processes, enactment and gazeting of legislation in Ethiopia.

The Author being a prolific writer delved into legislative drafting in Saudi – Arabia using Islamic law as the basis of legislative drafting. Most text books hardly discuss this area of legislative drafting of Suadi- Arabia using Islamic Law as the basis of Knowledge, in chapter 3.

As if the Author, Dr. Tonye Clinton Jaja knows that the reading public will ask the question; “you have dealt with Islamic Law, will this book be complete if you do not make us to know what the position is under Christianity/ biblical Laws? The Author in this chapter 4, exposed us to the drafting style of Bilical Law. What a brilliant way of handling this chapter.

Dr. Tonye Clinton Jaja, a prolific Writer and not ready to let down Prof. Abubakar Olanrewaju Sulaiman, who himself can be introduced as the efficient, excellent, brilliant and Administrator per excellent, being a former minister of the federal Republic of Nigeria, Dr Tonye Clinton Jaja navigated through the difficult area of legislative drafting style of a transitory jurisdiction by critically assessing the position of this chapter 5 through case study of Japan Civil Law to common law.

In chapter 6, the Author really entered into another area of legislative drafting difficulties with his analysis of the communalities and similarities with respect to different drafting styles. This is an important chapter which is a must read for us all, notwithstanding the fact that the other chapters in this book are actually necessary for us to read too.

The Author in chapter 7 discussed the term “legislative Bijuralism” this is a legislative drafting technique dealing with giving a term, a meaning which is specific to both the civil law and the common law. It can also be described as a drafting technique which consist of expressing through different terms the “legal rule” applicable to each legal system for example in Canada two different private law traditions co-exists.

With respect to chapter 8, it was brilliantly discussed by the author, where he tackled the issue of legislative drafting style as a sub-topic in relation to Economic Community of West African states (ECOWAS) Parliament. This is a must read for the public especially legislatures and legislative drafters.[14]

In Chapter 9 equally, legislative drafting office as a tool for regional integration in relation to the study of ECOWAS and European Union were assessed and discussed. He stated further that;

“—–Bad legislation leads to vague, conflicting, inaccurate provisions —–wound public support to the cause of European and by extension ECOWAS integration”.

While in chapter 10, the issue of African Union legal drafting was raised by emphasizing more on the processes, mechanisms and challenges. It was stated emphatically thus;

“Unlike some international organization such as the European Union (EU), the international Labour Organization (ILO) or UNESCO, the AU has so far not developed a manual or comprehensive guidelines on legal drafting as part of its normative activities therefore, while focusing on legal drafting aspects as arising from the practice of the union, this section intends to outline the procedure, the methods and condition under which the “manufacturing” of the African Union Law is processed—————”.

4.0       EVALUATION

The Author in publishing this book can be said to achieve his desired objective which is to make legislative book and legislative drafting to be available for the reading public.

The Author intention herein again is to make sure that both the lawyers, judges, Students and Researcher have easy access to this area of book on legislative drafting.

It is the intention of the Author too, to see that his book as an important, if not the best legislative drafting book in Nigeria.

It is my opinion that this book is a valuable contribution to knowledge especially in the all area of legislative drafting.

5.0       SUMMARY[15]

In the book as published, we have been able to have constructive assessment of the subs topics one after the other.in relation to the main-topic, we followed in details the requirements of a normal book review which is expected to involve (1) Description (2) critical analysis (3) Evaluation (4) summary (5) Recommendations (6) conclusion

The book is a groundbreaking one because, it is the first its kind to use six criterias namely; 1. Nomenclature; 2. Drafting personnel; 3. Structure of legislation; 4. Legislation for drafting; 5. Supporting Documents and 6. Publication of legislation and to compare and contrast the different legal/legislative drafting system of the world.

Within ten chapters of this groundbreaking book, the major jurisdiction and legal system that are examined includes; the common legal system as exemplified by the United Kingdom; the civil law legal tradition as exemplified by France; the Islamic law system as exemplified by Saudi Arabia and the legislative drafting system of the African Union (AU); United Nations (UN) and the European union (EU).

The benefits of such comparative study of legislative drafting system and models of legislation is presented in Chapter one of this book.

Although initially conceived as a textbook for law student on the Master of law (LL.M) in legislative drafting   of the university of Benin/ NILDS, this book would be useful to other legal scholars and legislators and even jurists whose work involves analysis of legislation.

“Legislative Drafting: A comparative study of method of france, Switzerland, United Kingdom and Sweden.”

Unlike Sir William Dale’s book with due respect, Dr. Jaja‘s book covers more jurisdictions and uses a criteria that includes six verifiable parameters as basis or tools for the comparative study.

  • RECOMMENDATIONS[16]
  1. It is recommended that the Author should immediately constitute member of his Editorial Board which should have himself as Editor in Chief, there should be Deputy Editor in chief, Editor, Senior Deputy Editor, Editorial Secretary, Deputy Editor, Senior  Assistant editors, Assistant Editor, Assistant Secretary and many other
  2. It is also recommended that the Author should also produce electronic versions of the book while the book.

7.0       CONCLUSION  

We accordingly and most specifically recommend this important book, the first of its kind, for the reading public, most especially, the judges, Lawyers, Academics, and Researchers, including the Legislatures

BIBLIOGRAPHY

  1. INTERNET MATERIAL
  2. Book Review; See https://www.quora.com; Accessed through the internet on 1/10/2024 at 1:15am
  1. BOOKS/PAPER PRESENTATION
  2. Access to justice in Sharia Courts, reviewed in Cambrian Law Review VOL37, 2006, Aberst wyth University, United Kingdom.
  3. “A Dichotomy of legislative Drafting and Law making Terms” Germany Academic Publishers July, 2012.

iii.        Legislative Drafting: An introduction to modern Theories and Principles (Oisterwijk, the Netherland, Wolf Legal Publishers, August, 2012.

  1. “Legislative Drafting office as a tool for Regional Integration: A comparative study of EU and ECOWAS” in L. Hamalai (ed) 40 years of regional integration by the ECOWAS. A Book of reading (Abuja: National institute of Legislative Studies, 2015).
  2. Legislative Drafting and Statutory interpretation: An introduction (Lagos: MALTHOUSEPRESS 2015).
  3. Legislative Drafting Consultant, National institute of Legislative Studies, Abuja, 2015.

[1] Book Review; See https://www.quora.com; Accessed through the internet on 1/10/2024 at 1:15am

[2] Ibid

[3] It is necessary to show to the World in this book review the excellent personality the Author is including some of his achievements.

[4] See pages 1 – 48

[5] See pages 65 – 75

[6] See pages 77 – 82

[7] See pages 83 – 100

[8] See pages 101 – 104

[9] See pages 105 – 126

[10] See pages 127 – 134

[11] See pages 135 – 148

[12] See pages 149 – 182

[13] See pages 183 – 287

[14] See pages 137 – 140

[15] The Summary shows how important this book is for the reading public.

[16] The recommendations are important for the consideration of the Author.

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