Her Majesty The Queen
The death of Her Majesty The Queen is a profoundly sad moment for the Commonwealth.
Her Majesty's life was one of extraordinary dedication and service and throughout her reign she enjoyed a long and enduring bond with people across the Commonwealth.
On behalf of CALC, I convey our sincere sorrow and deepest condolences to The King, The Queen Consort and all the Royal Family.
Andy Beattie, CALC President
Legislative responses to COVID-19
See the information table at this new page.
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
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.
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.”
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.
CALC Online Conference, 18-19 July 2022
On-demand recordings of both days (all Zones) are now in the Members' Area (login access only).
Upcoming events
Statute Law Society: Against the Clock: Time Pressure and the Constitution
When: 8 February 2023, 6pm (UK time)
Where: UCL Faculty of Laws (in-person and online)
Dr Hannah White OBE
Director of the Institute for Government
For more information, click here.
Commonwealth Law Conference 2023
"Commonwealth Lawyers - Common challenges in uncommon times"
Where: Goa, India
When: 5-9 March 2023
For details go to the https://www.clc-goa2023.com/.
Commonwealth Association of Law Reform Agencies Conference 2023
When: 4 March 2023 (just before the CLC)
Where: Goa, India - Sala de Banquete, the Cidade de Goa Hotel.
See the conferences page for more information
To attend, please register interest directly with CALRAs General Secretary Malcolm McMillan - E.mail: malcolm.mcmillan@gov.scot
CALC conferences - hold the dates!
- CALC Europe Conference on 24-25 May 2023.
Where: Cardiff, Wales. Hosted by the Welsh Office of the Legislative Counsel.
- CALC Asia – Pacific Conference on 2-4 August 2023.
Where: Sydney, Australia. Hosted by the New South Wales Parliamentary Counsel’s Office (on behalf of the Australasian Parliamentary Counsels’ Committee).
More details will be available soon, as well as a call for papers.
International Legislative Drafting Institute
Run by The Public Law Center at Tulane Law School.
Training specifically designed for legislative drafters and for the members of legislative bodies.
Where: New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
When: 12-23 June 2023
For details go to https://law.tulane.edu/international-legislative-drafting-institute.
Call for Papers: Colloquium on Parliamentary Accountability
Where: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
When: Dates to be confirmed in Fall 2022.
Deadline for the call for papers: 1 August 2022.
For the call for papers, click here.
Past events
Constitutional Kōrero 2022
A one in 10 year conference to look at constitutional transformation, Constitutional Kōrero 2022 has the objective to “bring international thought-leaders on constitutions and Indigenous peoples together with Aotearoa-based thought-leaders to generate transformative, practical and robust options for constitutional transformation in Aotearoa”.
21-23 November 2022, in person or online. www.constitutionalkorero.co.nz.
iLegis 2022 - The International Conference on Legislation and Law Reform
Where: Washington DC, USA
When: 3 & 4 November 2022
To register and for details of costs, go to the conference registration page.
Statute Law Society: 2022 Lord Renton Lecture: 9 November 2022
Dame Elizabeth Gardiner DCB QC (Hon), First Parliamentary Counsel, will deliver the 2022 Annual Lord Renton Lecture.
Date and time: 9 November 2022, 6pm (UK time).
For more information, click here.
2022 IAL Palermo Conference: 14-15 October 2022
The IAL Conference 2022 will try to set the parameters for this research looking at other disciplines, such as law and linguistics that may help legislative drafter who wants to know how a piece of legislation has performed and the extent to which its goals have been achieved. The conference is expected to be held virtually and on-site at the University of Palermo. The programme will be posted in due course. For more information, click here.
CIAJ Legislative Drafting Conference: 8-9 September 2022
The biennial Legislative Drafting Conference (in person in Ottawa and online) will tackle the most important challenges in modern legislation. The conference will include a wide range of speakers from Canada, the UK and beyond.
For more information, click here.
Statute Law Society: Independent Review of Administrative Law -- 14 July 2022
The Rt Hon The Lord Faulks QC will discuss the report of the Independent Review of Administrative Law.
Lord Faulks was Chair of the Panel which was disbanded in January 2021 following the submission of their report to Government.
Date: Thursday, 14 July 2022 - 6 – 7pm (UK time)
Venue: Online or in person at UCL Faculty of Law, Bentham House, 4-8 Endsleigh Gardens, London WC1H 0EG
Cost: This event is free to attend
Registration will open shortly. For more information, click here.
Drafting Workshop, 28-29 June 2022
The UWI is hosting a Legislative Drafting Workshop to be facilitated by Mrs. Jonetta Jeet Ramsahai scheduled for 28-29 June 2022. A fee is charged to attend.
For ease, note the steps below to register and attend:
1. Register via the link: https://forms.gle/TdeinfCf4CpZgj5f9
2. Pay the fee (provided for online via the options laid out in the registration form),
3. Submit proof of payment to law@sta.uwi.edu (wire transfer receipt)
4. The virtual link will then be provided to attend.
Webinar on Legislatures in Times of Crisis -- Ukraine -- 16 June 2022
The organizers of the Seventh International Conference on Legislation and Law Reform cordially invite you to attend a free, not-to-be missed legislative webinar hosted in cooperation with the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School and USAID.
Join us to learn how the Verkhovna Rada (Parliament) of Ukraine has operated during the Russia-Ukraine war.
The webinar will feature two speakers from the Verkhovna Rada, followed by a question and answer session.
Time: Thursday, June 16
10:00 – 11:30 AM EDT
(5:00 – 6:30 PM Eastern European Summer Time)
To register for the webinar, click here.
What goes where? ALRC webinar 24 May 2022
A comparative discussion of the legislative puzzle -- As the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) moves forward with its current inquiry into the simplification of corporations and financial services legislation, it is turning its attention to regulatory design and the hierarchy of laws. Relevant questions include: How should the statutory and regulatory framework be designed to support complex areas such as financial services? Where should the law be located to achieve coherence and navigability? If the law needs detail to function, whose job should it be to provide it? Join the ALRC as it hosts a panel of international experts from Hong Kong, New Zealand, Singapore, and the UK to discuss these and related issues.
TUESDAY 24 MAY 2022 AT 4.30PM AEST
2.30PM AWST, HKT, SGT | 6.30PM NZST | 7.30AM BST
For a flyer, click here.
To register for this free webinar, click here.
Statute Law Society Lecture, 11 May 2022
Determining the Matter: Statutory Interpretation and Devolved Legislation -- The Supreme Court's recent decision in the Rights of the Child Reference [2021] UKSC 42, on the lawfulness of the Scottish Parliament's bill to incorporate the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child into Scots law, raises important questions about the construction of both devolved legislation and Westminster legislation.
Speaker: Denis Edwards, Barrister. Formerly Lecturer in Law, University of Strathclyde and Assistant Professor of Law, City University, Hong Kong. Vice Chair of the Statute Law Society. Attendance: Tickets to attend in-person at UCL Laws (Bentham House, Endsleigh Gardens, London WC1H 0EG) are limited for this event. Options are available to attend online via zoom. Please choose the correct ticket when making your booking.
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.
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 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).
Employment
For more information about employment opportunities and contract drafters, see the Employment page.
| Position | Closing Date | Information for applicants | |
| ⇒ Deputy Chief Parliamentary Counsel - Office of the Parliamentary Counsel, Northern Territory, Australia | 15 January 2023 | Details and application link | |
| ⇒ Legislative Drafter - Legislative Drafting Office, Jersey | 9 January 2023 | Details and how to apply | |
| Legal Drafter – Specialist Advisor IV, Department of State, International Narcotics and Law Enforcement, Belize | 30 November 2022 | Description and how to apply | |
| Legal Draftsperson and Legislative Drafting Division Adviser, Solomon Islands | 14 October 2022 | Legal Draftsperson description (and how to apply) | Legislative Drafting Division Adviser description (and how to apply) |
|
Senior Parliamentary Counsel, Parliamentary Counsel’s Office, Western Australia |
11 August 2022 | Apply online | Job description (334 KB) |
|
Legislative Drafting Consultant - Commonwealth Model Legislative Provisions on Abuse of Positions of Trust |
23 June 2022 | Terms of reference (107 KB) | |
|
Chief Legislative Drafter, Attorney-General's Chambers, Isle of Man |
26 June 2022 | Website |
|
|
Senior Legislative Drafter, Attorney-General's Chambers, Isle of Man
|
23 June 2022 | Website | Role description and person specification (140 KB) |
CALC provides links to information about various courses and training in legislative drafting.
Upcoming training
International Centre for Parliamentary Studies
Professional Certificate in Legislative Processes intensive short course (online)
7-9 November 2022
Services
CALC has a number of services that are provided for the benefit of members and legislative drafting offices.
These services include:
- advertising drafting positions
- the CALC online drafting advice service
- the CALC office organisation advice service.
For more details, please see the CALC Services Page.
Publications catalogue
Find papers and articles published in the Newsletter or Loophole.
Forum
The forum is only available for registered and logged in members.
Drafting manuals and other resources
CALC provides links to online drafting manuals and other resources.
Training
CALC provides links to information about various courses and training in legislative drafting.
Upcoming training
International Centre for Parliamentary Studies
Professional Certificate in Legislative Processes intensive short course (online)
7-9 November 2022