Legislative responses to COVID-19

See the information table at this new page.

Complexity, legislative design, and improving navigability of legislation 

The Australian Law Reform Commission has recently released a couple of background papers as part of its Review of the Legislative Framework for Corporations and Financial Services Regulation. The papers relate to complexity and legislative design, and improving the navigability of legislation. See the link below.

Related website link: https://www.alrc.gov.au/inquiry/review-of-the-legislative-framework-for-corporations-and-financial-services-regulation/consultation-doc/

Meredith Leigh appointed new First Parliamentary Counsel

Congratulations to Meredith Leigh on her appointment as the new First Parliamentary Counsel, Australian Government Office of Parliamentary Counsel.

Statute Law Society event -- Annual Lord Renton Lecture, 25 November 2021, 6pm UK time 

What makes good statute law: a judge's view
Speaker: Lady Arden of Heswall, Justice of the Supreme Court
chaired by The Hon Mr Justice Garnham, Chairman of the Statute Law Society

An on-demand recording of this lecture is available at this link:

Statute Law Society Annual Lord Renton Lecture - YouTube

Recordings of Legislative Drafting Webinars

On demand recordings of 2 webinars in the iLegis and Penn Law series Bicontinental Perspectives on Legislative Drafting are available at these links:

• The Ethics and Politics of Legislative Drafting - YouTube
• Legislation as an Interdisciplinary Challenge Using Environmental Law as an Example - YouTube

Recording of Rule of Law and Subordinate Legislation Webinar, 29 September 2021 

Time: 29 September 2021, 6-7 pm (UK time)

Speaker: Sir Jonathan Jones, KCB QC, former HM Procurator General, Treasury Solicitor and Head of the Government Legal Services.

Recording: https://vimeo.com/showcase/8885191 

Paper: click here.

Rules as Code 101 webinar recording

A recording of the AUSCL / CALC Webinar in September 2021 is now available in the Members' Area.

The recording is also available from LinkedIn, but only to subscribers to the AUSCL channel on LinkedIn.

Please help to shape the future of CALC – strategic planning survey

The Council has developed a survey seeking your views on a range of issues.

CALC also welcomes responses to the survey from non-members or organisations with an interest in CALC’s objectives or activities.

To complete the survey online, click https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/CALC_2021-2025.

You can answer the questions, and adjust your answers to the questions, in several sessions online, so long as you do not click “done”.

To complete the survey by Word document, download it at this link, type in your responses and save them, then email the saved amended document to Ross.Carter@pco.govt.nz.

Please complete the survey by 27 September 2021.

Honours for 2 exceptional legislative drafters 

CALC’s President, Geoff Lawn, says: “2 CALC members have been made a Dame Commander of the Order of the Bath in this year’s UK Queen’s Birthday Honours. These are our very own Brenda King, our Immediate Past President, and Elizabeth Gardiner, First Parliamentary Counsel in the UK OPC. This is such wonderful and well-deserved recognition of their many years of service, and it is great to see the work of legislative drafters recognised in this way. I have congratulated Brenda and Elizabeth on behalf of CALC.”

RSS feeds

RSS feeds have been set up for this webpage -- see the footer block below.

To set up an RSS feed, copy the URL for each feed into an RSS reader, as follows:

• The Loophole: calc.ngo/rss/loophole.xml
• The Newsletter: calc.ngo/rss/newsletter.xml
• Conference papers: calc.ngo/rss/papers.xml
• Conferences: calc.ngo/rss/conferences.xml
• Employment: calc.ngo/rss/employment.xml
• What’s new: calc.ngo/rss/whats-new.xml

Upcoming events

Bicontinental Perspectives on Legislative Drafting -- 2 webinars on 21 and 22 October 2021

October 21-22, 2021 | Washington, D.C. 

The organizers for the Seventh International Conference on Legislation and Law Reform cordially invite you to attend two free, not-to-be missed legislative drafting webinars hosted in cooperation with the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School.

These two webinars feature renowned experts on legislative drafting, who were invited to speak at the planned, in-person legislative conference, which was unavoidably postponed until 2022, due to the ongoing pandemic.

After a brief introduction, each webinar will consist of a 30-minute formal presentation, followed by a 20-minute question and answer session. After a short break, interested attendees may join a post-webinar session in breakout rooms for further discussion and networking.

For more detail and to register, click here.

Statute Law Society event -- Annual Lord Renton Lecture, 25 November 2021, 6pm UK time 

What makes good statute law: a judge's view
Speaker: Lady Arden of Heswall, Justice of the Supreme Court
chaired by The Hon Mr Justice Garnham, Chairman of the Statute Law Society

Sign up to attend (either in-person or remotely on zoom) at:
https://annual-lord-renton-lecture-2021.eventbrite.co.uk

Past events

CIAJ Online Program | Legislative Drafting Conference (20th Anniversary) | Making Laws in a Post-Modern World: Are You Ready? September 10-18-24 and October 1, 2020

The 20th Annual Legislative Drafting Conference of the Canadian Institute for the Administration of Justice this fall focused on the changing technology of legislative drafting and its impact on lawmaking.

For more details and to register, click here.

 

IAL Conference | Multilingual Legislation | Centre for Legislative Studies | Zurich | 13-14 September 2021

The International Association of Legislation and the Centre for Legislative Studies (Zentrum für Rechtsetzungslehre-ZfR) are organizing the 2021 Zurich IAL Conference with the topic “Multilingual Legislation”, on September 13-14, 2021. This Conference celebrates the 20th anniversary of the Centre for Legislative Studies.

The conference is expected to be held virtually and on-site. 

Read more about the conference here.

Connections: Legislative editing across continents and nearer to home -- Jersey Legislative Drafting Office / CALC webinar

Registration and webinar times: You can register for this event using the following links:

•          8 September, 5 pm UTC+1. This is Jersey/UK time, which is 12 noon in Ontario and Bahamas, 9 am in Vancouver (BC).
•          9 September, 8 am UTC+1 (repeat session). This is Jersey/UK time, which is 3 pm in Western Australia and Singapore, 5 pm in NSW, 7 pm in New Zealand.

Please take part in one session or the other based on your time zone, not both (but the Jersey LDO team will participate in both).

Duration: 2-2.5 hours approximately (each session)

Format:

·         Microsoft Teams webinar – participants are advised to download the free app, but it can also be used through a browser.

·         Select people/teams from different jurisdictions will give short presentations, followed by questions.

·         Organisers will also, if practicable, aim to record the sessions, for later access via the members’ area at www.calc.ngo.

Topics for discussion:

• What skills do you look for at recruitment - what makes someone right? How do you train new and existing staff to retain skills and develop them?
• What is in your Editor’s/Translator’s Toolkit?
  • how do you work, electronically/paper/audio etc?
  • what resources do you use to help your editorial/translation work? eg

1. knowledge management tools like a wiki or a paper collection or advice?
2. paper or electronic compendiums or precedent text collections?
3. electronic checking tools run over files or built-in drafting tool controls?
4. document management systems for tracking, reviewing and organising work?
5. other things?

• what is your favourite tip or tool?

• How do you see the role or methods that you use developing? How has your work changed recently, or what would you like to change?

How can you contribute? Would you like to give a short talk or presentation on these topics and editing or translating work in your jurisdiction? We would love to hear your ideas - please contact Kate Hannah (K.Hannah@gov.je).

IALS 2021 Advanced Course on Post-Legislative Scrutiny -- 2 July 2021 to 30 July 2021 

The Institute of Advanced Legal Studies of the University of London (IALS-UoL) and the Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD) are happy to announce the launch of the Advanced Certified Course on Post-Legislative Scrutiny. 

For more details of this webinar-based course, see https://ials.sas.ac.uk/events/event/22560. 

 

IALS Gender Neutrality Online Workshop -- 7 July 2021 -- 10:00 to 18:00 UK time 

At this ‘Legislative Drafting and Language’ Workshop, scholars and experts in the field of law, legislative drafting, and linguistics will explore the research space around law and language focusing on the gender-neutral strategies adopted by drafters in various jurisdictions. Our ambition is to envisage ‘a way forward’ in legislative drafting and to generate ideas that might challenge prevailing practices and beliefs, to cross the traditional boundaries of disciplines such as law and linguistics, and eventually to interact successfully with scholars from different fields. Three main themes will be discussed:

• 1st Theme: Gender neutrality and Westminster
• 2nd Theme: Learning from other legislative experiences
• 3rd Theme: Gender, language and the law

​Details about how to join the virtual event will be circulated via email to registered attendees closer to the event date.

To register, go to https://www.ials.sas.ac.uk/events/event/23907

Launch of Legislative Drafting and Law Reform Exchange Programme for OECS Member States -- 22 June 2021

This programme will address the shortage of legislative drafting and law reform capacity in the Commonwealth Caribbean region, particularly in the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean Member States (OECS) to begin with, in a more holistic and sustainable manner by facilitating the exchange of legislative drafting and law reform skills. Full details of the official launch, by The Commonwealth, of this programme, are in this 1-page flyer (59 KB).

Date and time: Tuesday 22 June 2021, 1300 to 1430 BST.

Register your interest at: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/4351348468441525517 

CIAJ Legislative Drafting Webinar -- 7 June 2021

Legislative Drafting in Time of Pandemic -- 7 June 2021

• Price per person: CIAJ Members: $35 / Non Members: $50
• Location: 90-minute webinar beginning at noon ET (see the different time zones across Canada)
• For more information, and to register, please click here.

AUSCL Rules as Code Masterclass 4 webinar -- 1 June 2021

• This Masterclass showcases the Open Fisca Rules as Code Platform.
• By registering you will have a front row seat to the Open Fisca's system and case studies from Australian Government which are leading the way for Rules as Code deployment.
• For more information, and to register, please click here. 

Symposium on Artificial Intelligence and Law (SAIL) -- 31 May 2021 to 4 June 2021 

• The Symposium on Artificial Intelligence and Law (SAIL) is a five-day, virtual event that aims to bring together experts from Industry and Academia to discuss the future of AI and Law. The Symposium aims to provide a venue for academic and industrial/governmental AI-Law researchers and law professionals to come together, present and discuss research results, use cases, innovative ideas, challenges, and opportunities that arise from applications of AI in the Legal Domain. The symposium is also meant to foster collaborations between the Legal and the Artificial Intelligence, Data Mining, Information Retrieval, Natural Language Processing, and Machine Learning communities.

• For more information, and to register, please click here.

AUSCL COVID Passports webinar -- 26 May 2021 

• Join the Australian Society for Computers and Law and its expert panel for three presentations and Q&A on COVID Passports, from proposals to introduce domestic vaccine passports in Australia to ecosystem considerations and the growing digital divide.
• For more information, and to register, please click here. 

CIAJ Legislative Drafting Webinar -- 17 May 2021 

Artificial Intelligence in Administrative Decision-Making -- 17 May 2021 

• Price per person: CIAJ Members: $35 / Non Members: $50
• Location: 90-minute webinar beginning at noon ET (see the different time zones across Canada)
• For more information, and to register, please click here. 

Webinar on Lawyers, Parliamentarians and the Rule of Law -- 27 April 2021 -- 1.00pm BST

The Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) and Commonwealth Lawyers Association (CLA) held this engaging webinar on the Rule of Law.

Lawyers and Parliamentarians from across the Commonwealth discussed their respective roles and boundaries in relation to the Commonwealth Latimer House Principles and the Separation of Powers.
• How do we co-operate for the good of all?
• What are their respective roles in properly holding governments to account?
• What are the challenges in post pandemic democracies?

DATE: Tuesday 27th April 2021
TIME: 1.00 pm BST (UK) / 7.00 am EST (Caribbean) / 3.00pm EAT (East Africa) / 8.00pm MYT (Malaysia)

The livestream is now available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Vs5lpCqrZQ

 

Webinar on Pandemic Legislation and Policy -- 21 April 2021 -- 9:30AM to 11:00 AM AEDT USA

This event is co-presented by the International Conference on Legislation and Law Reform and the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School.

Join for a lively discussion of legal regimes for vaccine development and distribution, key ingredients in a national response to the COVID-19 pandemic, conflicts between government mandates and individual rights, and other pandemic legislative and legal issues. 

To register to watch live, go to Register for the Webinar. 

Webinar on new technologies and the law -- 16 March 2021 -- 19:00 to 20:00 New South Wales time 

This event is co-presented by the UNSW Centre for Ideas and the Australian Society for Computers and Law.

To register to watch live or get the on-demand recording, go to https://www.centreforideas.com/event/new-technologies-and-the-law 

CALC's Activity Report for Senior Officials of Law Ministries (SOLM) Meeting 16-17 February 2021 

CALC's Activity Report for the Commonwealth's Senior Officials of Law Ministries (SOLM) Meeting 16-17 February 2021 is available here.

Rules as code online free event on 2 February 2021 -- writing legislation so machines can understand

CALC members are invited to join an Australian Society for Computers and Law / Allens Hub rules as code free event on 2 February 2021.

Date and time – Tuesday, 2 February 2021, 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm Australian Eastern Daylight Time (AEDT).

AEDT is Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) + 11 hours.

You may access a copy of the recording of the event here: https://youtu.be/H3YgOh4WU7U. 

CALC – COVID-19 Webinar –

Presented by the Australasia and the Pacific Region

In this webinar, a number of legislative drafting offices in Australia and New Zealand will discuss—

• the legislative responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in their jurisdictions,
• the impact of the pandemic on their offices, and
• lessons learned from the pandemic.

The webinar will be held on Friday, 11 December 2020, and begin at—

• 12 noon AEDT
• 9 am AWST, and
• 2 pm NZDT.

The webinar will be hosted using the Zoom platform, and run for 2-2.5 hours.

A link to enable CALC members to join the webinar will be emailed to members before the webinar.

An on-demand recording of the webinar will also be made available later in the Members' area.

CommSec COVID-19 Rule of Law Webinars

On-demand recordings of all 6 webinars, held from July 2020 to November 2020, are now available via the links at this new page.

iLegis COVID-19 Lawmaking Webinar

An on-demand recording of this webinar is now available via the link at this new page.

 

2020 IAL Athens Conference | 11 February 2021

 

Other CALC notices

Congratulations to Peter Quiggin on his appointment as a Queen's Counsel

CALC members congratulate Peter Quiggin PSM on his appointment as a Queen's Counsel.

Hon Christian Porter MP, Attorney General for Australia, made the appointment announcement on 15 October 2020.

Mr Quiggin PSM is First Parliamentary Counsel, Office of Parliamentary Counsel. He has served as Australia’s First Parliamentary Counsel since 2004. Mr Quiggin was awarded a Public Service Medal in the 2008 Australia Day Honours List for outstanding public service in delivering the government's legislative agenda at a time of significant legislative change and in a number of critical areas.

Peter has also served as CALC's President from 2011 to 2017. As CALC members appreciate, Peter also showed outstanding leadership and service in that role.

Above is a recent photo of Peter with the banner that celebrates OPC’s 50th anniversary.

Pacific Toolkit: From policy to legislation

Congratulations to the Pacific Islands Law Officers' Network (PILON) and Australian Attorney-General's Department on launching this Toolkit.

The Toolkit is available for download here.

Cancellation of CALC Conference 2021 – Bahamas July 2021 

CALC's Council has decided to cancel the 2021 CALC Conference that was to be held in the Bahamas in July 2021.

For more details, see Geoff Lawn's CALC President's report in the December 2020 CALC Newsletter at the Newsletters page.

Meeting of Commonwealth Law Ministers and Senior Officials
Colombo, Sri Lanka, 4-7 November 2019

• CALC Activity Report
• Outcome Statement for the Meeting.

 CALC Conference 2019 -- Zambia, 1-3 April 2019

This Conference was held at the Avani Victoria Falls Resort, in Livingstone, Zambia, 1-3 April 2019. 

Conference papers for Zambia, April 2019 are in the Members’ area (member log in access only).