Book Review; An Introduction To Comparative Legislative Drafting: (Cases And Materials Edited By Dr. Tonye Clinton-Jaja)

The Book Was Reviewed By Prof. Abiodun Amuda-Kannike SAN, FCArb, FCE, FALDRap, FCIHM, ACIT, DEAN, Faculty Of Law, Kwara State University, Malete, Kwara State, Nigeria

TITLE:      AN INTRODUCTION TO COMPARATIVE LEGISLATIVE DRAFTING: (CASES AND MATERIALS)

AUTHOR: DR. TONYE CLINTON JAJA

PAGES:     224 PAGES

PRICE:      NOT STATED

INTRODUCTION

The essence of the book is to bring into life, a working tool for the students and practitioners/professionals who have reason or reasons to be involved in legislative drafting especially the Post-graduate students who are involved in legislative drafting programmes or legislative drafting.[1]

The book also involves comparative legislative drafting which has to be put in proper perspective in order to appreciate the cumbersome nature of the comparative analysis of legislative drafting.[2] It is not as if other Authors have not written books on this issue before, but there is the need to simplify the understanding of legislative drafting and its comparative analysis as said earlier.

It is however, important that in order to properly handle this book review, there is the need to define the following terms;[3]

1. Book Review
2. Legislative Drafting

iii.      Cases and Materials

BOOK REVIEW

In defining a book review, it is said to be 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 said topic. The next question is; “What is a review?” Reviews generally ranged from 500 – 1000 words, but it may be longer or shorter depending on the length and complexity of the book being reviewed. The main purpose of review is a comparative analysis in some instances of two or more books which focus on the same topic or on examining the book itself in relation to those topics discussed.[4]

In talking further about book reviews, one can see such happenings where professors assigns book reviews as practice in carefully analysed complex scholarly texts, furthermore, it is to asses ones ability to effectively synthesis research so that it reach an informed perspective about research problem or issue.[5]

It is equally important to understand that there exist two important general approach while reviewing a book, which is the job at stake here and they are as follows;

1. Descriptive Review: Here, one need to present the content and structure of a book as objectively as possible, and the essential information about the book purpose and authority has to be described.[6]
2. Critical Review: In this situation or type of review the book has to be described and evaluated in relation to accepted literary and historical standards. This evaluation has to be supported with evidence from the text and in most cases, in contrast to and in comparison with the research of the others.[7]

LEGISLATIVE DRAFTING

This is an institutional means of communication. The legislative drafting process commence with receiving instruction or instructions and the drafting itself complete the stage. A Legislative Draftsman is a person engaged in the drafting of legislative Bills and other instruments at any level of government where legislative Bills and Instruments are required.

Legislative drafting also has to do with skills of a Legislative Drafter who is a lawyer and trained in the discipline[8] of mastering the use of words and knowledge to effectively communicate policies and intentions into simple, clear and intelligible laws, analyzing the future to produce a workable and realistic solutions in order to develop the society.

Legal drafting has to do with a broad sense in drafting, whereas, legislative drafting deals with particular about the issues of drafting. Legislative drafting is a process as we can see from above which commence from converting legislative policy into legal rules.

CASES AND MATERIALS

Cases and materials is a system of using decided cases, statues and decisions of courts to explain subject matter or principles of law/policies. It is also a process of using cases decided by court/statutes to teach the students or the reading public about different aspect of the laws or the general principles of laws.[9]

Cases are said to be an instance of a particular situation. Something occurring[10] but with regards to the context of this topic, we are looking at it in relation to decisions of courts. Materials are said to be the matter from which a thing is or can be made. Furthermore, it is seen as information or ideas for use in creating a book or other work.[11]

1. DESCRIPTIVE

The book title as could be seen by all of us is; “An introduction to comparative Legislative Drafting”.[12]

The Author of this book for the avoidance of doubt is Dr. Tonye Clinton Jaja, who is an astute Lawyer, a brilliant academic, and a researcher to the core. He holds a Ph.D in Law in the area of Legislative drafting and it is important to enumerate them as follows;

1. Bachelor of Laws (LL.B Hons) between October, 1998 – March, 2003
2. Bar Certificate B.L (Hons) October, 2003 – October, 2004

iii.      Master of Laws (LL.M Hons) Legislative Drafting October, 2005 – September, 2006

1. Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D) in Law, Institute of Advance Legal Studies, School of Advanced Study (SAS), University of London, in August 31st, 2013

The Author has written several other books and articles such as;

1. Access to Justice in Sharia Courts, reviewed in Cambrian Law Review Vol.37, 2006, Aberst Wyth University, United Kingdom.[13]
2. “A Dichotomy of Legislative Drafting and Law making Terms” Germany Academic Publisher July, 2012.[14]

iii.      Legislative Drafting: An introduction to modern Theories and Principles (Oisterwijk, The Netherlands, 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: MALTHOUSE PRESS 2015).
3. Legislative Drafting Consultant, National Institute of Legislative Studies, Abuja, 2015.[15]

The general subject area of this book is legislative drafting and a comparative study.

The purpose of this book is multidimensional/multifunctional because of the followings;

1. To make sure that there are availability of books on comparative legislative drafting which is a specialise area for easy accessibility for Legislative Draftsmen, Lawyers, Judges, Legislatures and Researchers.
2. To make sure that Legislative drafting maintain its pride of place among other areas of profession and intellectualism.

iii.      To develop legislative drafting more in the form of comparative analysis and making of law easier and interesting.

The scope of this book is limited to few countries mentioned by the Author for comparative analysis with the intention of widening the scope in “revised editions”.

The book is divided into several chapters such as;

1. Chapter 1 on Introduction
2. Chapter 2 on Ethiopia’s Legislative Drafting

iii.      Chapter 3 on Basic features of Legislative Drafting under Islamic Law of Saudi Arabia

1. Chapter 4 is on Features of Legislative Drafting style of Biblical Law
2. Chapter 5 is on Legislative Drafting style of a transitory jurisdiction – case study of Japan – Civil Law to Common Law
3. Chapter 6 is on some commonalities and similarities amongst different drafting styles

vii.     Chapter 7 is on Legislative Bijuralism. Its foundation and its application

viii.    Chapter 8 is on Legislative Drafting style of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) parliament

1. Chapter 9 is however on Legislative Drafting style of the African Union Commission.
2. CRITICAL ANALYSIS

The Author did an analysis of the issue of Legislative drafting by looking at different countries legislative drafting.

In Chapter 1, the Author introduced us to the book itself while looking at the[16] (i) importance of studying and comparing legislative drafting styles (ii) the benefits of comparisons of legislative drafting styles or structures of legislation (iii) taxonomy or classification of legislative drafting styles and structure of legislative (iv) historical overview (v) modern taxonomy of drafting styles (vi) similarities and differences between common law and civil law styles of drafting (vii) features of European Union legislative drafting styles (viii) commonality of E.U, common law and Nigerian legislative drafting styles.

The same chapter 1, contains difference between common law and civil law legislation, the U.K common law legislative drafting style – origin and background and legislative drafting style in Nigeria.

Critically examined,[17] the Author has done a perfect job in this regard, however, the prologue-course outline on pages 10-18 should have more of such since this area is more practical in nature.

In chapter two, the Author did well also by dealing with Ethiopia’s legislation drafting, by looking at the various types of legislation in Ethiopia, the legislative process and equally, enactment and gazetting. There is however, the need for more writings of Ethiopia legislative drafting process in another edition of the book to be published.

In chapter three, the Author focused attention was on the basic features of legislative drafting under the Islamic law of Saudi Arabia. This is fantastic because it is not easy to find this topic in most books. It will however give readers more opportunity of understanding if this chapter/topic is expanded in scope.[18]

In chapter four, the Author’s brilliance again appear more prominent when he gave the perfect understanding of the basic features of legislative drafting style of biblical law. Most books hardly discuss this type of legislating drafting but his topic makes the book an all en-compassing one especially as it is good for researchers, intellectuals and the academics especially as it shows further that biblical law addressed the root causes of crimes-by looking at the desired root cause of most crimes.[19] Good illustrations were provided.

In chapter five, an excellent work was done in discussing the issue of legislative drafting style of a transitory jurisdiction while considering the case of Japan civil law to common law.

It outlined legislative drafting style and legislative making procedure. It considered, its usefulness, training, criteria’s, distribution, organization of ministries and role of legislative drafters within the ministries.

In chapter six, the Author, dealt with commonalities and similarities amongst the different drafting styles, this includes; gender neutral language which is a specialise drafting procedure, it equally suggested some modes of drafting which to our mind, makes this book really important. This area of drafting is very unique. It looks at the use of plain English language while drafting vis-à-vis, clarity, precision and unambiguity while drafting.[20]

In chapter seven, is on legislative Bijuralism, its foundations and its application. We were made to understand that Bijuralism means, the co-existence of civil law and common law in Canada. This co-existence has to do with history, especially the colonization of North America following the founding of New France.

In chapter eight, of the book, the Author, an exemplary Researcher, proceeded to deal with legislative drafting style of the ECOWAS parliament.[21] He went on to discuss the ECOWAS legislative frame work and took them one after the other such as Supplementary Acts, regulations, directives and decisions. This is an important chapter in that most people do not know about legislate drafting styles of the ECOWAS parliament. This topic is very wide and with in-depth analysis about legislative drafting style of the ECOWAS parliament.

SUMMARY

In this review, we have been able to show constructive assessment of the book as much as we could. We have been able to also reveal that legislative drafting is a specialise area of profession requiring extra-ordinary skills, efficiency and brilliance in order to succeed.

Some of the core words were identified and defined. They are;

1. Book review
2. Legislative drafting

iii.      Cases and Materials

We used two methods in handling this book review which are; descriptive analysis and critical analysis and took the chapters in the book one after the other by way of summary and evaluation.

We followed in details the requirements of book review such as;

1. Description
2. Critical analysis

iii.      Evaluation

1. Summary
2. Recommendations
3. Conclusion and

vii.     Bibliography

RECOMMENDATIONS

1. It is recommended that the Author should immediately constitute members of his Editorial Board which should have himself remaining as Editor in-Chief, there should be Deputy Editor in-Chief, Editor, Senior Deputy Editor, Editorial Secretary, Deputy Editors, Senior Assistant Editors, Assistant Editor ad Assistant Editorial Secretary.
2. It is equally recommended that the book should have more prologue outlines for practical work.
3. It is recommended that more Supreme Court cases and materials on legislative drafting across counties should be provided in volume 2 yet to come out.
4. It is also recommended that the Author should also produce electronic versions of the book while the book format should also continue.
5. There should be volume 2 of this book urgently.

CONCLUSION

We recommend this important book, the first of its kind, for the reading public, most especially, the Judges, Lawyers, academicians and researchers. The few areas requiring corrections as discovered in our review, are not new, when a book such as this is produced, as there will always be continuous improvement when subsequent volumes are published, since, this is the volume one.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INTERNET MATERIALS & BOOKS/PRESENTATIONS

1. Amuda-Kannike SAN; Book review Nigerian Copyright Law Report 2019 NCLR Vol.1, CASES 1-6, written by Dr. Tonye Clinton JajaL 19th August, 2019; pages 04 – 05
2. Book Review; see https://libguides.use.edu; Accessed through the internet on 14/8/2023 at 1am
3. Legislative Drafting; see https://lawyerguyana.com; Accessed through the internet on 14/8/2023 at 1:30am
4. Cases; see https://www.vocabularly.com; Accessed through the internet on 14/8/2023 at 3am
5. Materials; see https://www.meriam.webster.com; Accessed through the internet on 14/8/2023 at 7am
6. See https://www.aber.ac.uk/en/Law.criminology/research/cir/pastedition/#v37-2006; Accessed on 17/8/2023 through the internet at 8pm
7. See; https://www.morebooks.de/store/gb/book/a-dictionaryoflegislativedrafting-and-lawmaking-terms/isbn/978-3-659-19233-3; Accessed on 17/8/2023 through the internet at 8:30pm

[1] The background to the book is very important in order to introduce the reader to the book

[2] Legislative drafting require special skill to bring alive bills, motions and laws

[3] The terms will enable us to appreciate the review herein upon understanding them which will ultimately enable us to appreciate the essence of the book.

[4] Book Review; see https://libguides.use.edu; Accessed through the internet on 14/8/2023 at 1am

[5] Ibid

[6] Prof. Amuda-Kannike SAN; Book review Nigerian Copyright Law Report 2019 NCLR Vol.1, CASES 1-6, written by Dr. Tonye Clinton Jaja 19th August, 2019; pages 04 – 05

[7] Ibid

[8] Legislative Drafting; see https://lawyerguyana.com; Accessed through the internet on 14/8/2023 at 1:30am

[9] This definition is likely to assist in understanding cases and materials, a definition which is elusive and difficult to come across as a whole.

[10] Cases; see https://www.vocabularly.com; Accessed through the internet on 14/8/2023 at 3am

[11] Materials; see https://www.meriam.webster.com; Accessed through the internet on 14/8/2023 at 7am

[12] The Author had to produce this book in order to contribute to knowledge in comparative legislative drafting

[13] See https://www.aber.ac.uk/en/Law.criminology/research/cir/pastedition/#v37-2006; Accessed on 17/8/2023 through the internet at 8pm

[14] See; https://www.morebooks.de/store/gb/book/a-dictionaryoflegislativedrafting-and-lawmaking-terms/isbn/978-3-659-19233-3; Accessed on 17/8/2023 through the internet at 8:30pm

[15] It is important to note that the experience of the Author is teaching, writing of articles, and practice as a Lawyer vis-à-vis conferences and seminars attended has shown that he is man of many excellent qualities which if we continue to describe him, it may take substantial part of this review and may not allow us to deal with the subject matter at hand.

[16] This is a good way to allow the opportunity of appreciating legislative drafting.

[17] A critical examination is expected in this regard in order to really show that it is really a book review

[18] The opportunity of including Islamic point of view in legislative drafting makes the book unique compared to other books on this subject matter.

[19] This is another unique topic as it discuss the issue of biblical legislative drafting which are hardly seen in most books.

[20] Gender legislative drafting is important and a special legislative drafting style.

[21] This book will be useful for ECOWAS parliamentarians and Researchers.