Legislative Drafting 1

Clarity and Ambiguity.

Legislative Drafting Course: Gender Neutral Language by Dr. H. Xanthaki

With the aim of simplification gender neutral language is gaining ground worldwide but not east to
introduce. The power point presentation addresses what is gender neutral language and principal
techniques which considered pronoun usage and pluralisation of words. Other verbs, clauses, phrases,
references and terms such as man were considered. Pronouns in specific and things to avoid when
eliminating he was considered.

Legislative Drafting 1- clarity, precision and ambiguity by Prof. H. Xanthaki

Under the head of Ambiguity and clarity, ambiguity and vagueness were considered. Butt and Castle
stated that legal documents ought to be written in the Standard English currently used and understood.
The need to avoid over generality was also discussed. Ireland was used as an example and the views of
the CPC to that government were stated which are that overzealous attempts at precision should be
avoided as they lead to redundancy and verbosity but under drafting should also be avoided as that is
dangerous.

The questions were asked and answered: why do we need precision, clarity and consistency? Why do we
not need precision and clarity?

Types of ambiguity namely semantic ambiguity and ambiguity to the sentence level were discussed in
detail. Additionally, the placement problem was discussed in detail. Additionally, the placement problem
was discussed in the context of phrases that specify time also need to be placed carefully. The rule of
last antecedent which refers to the special problem with the placement of modifiers under which
resolution is found by taking the problem phrase as applying to the last item in the series was discussed.
Something was said re style of drafting and type of legislation which is important to note that is that the
style of drafting may also depend on the aim of the legislation that is whether coercive or not.

Gender neutral drafting, principal techniques and more techniques and plain language and what it is was
also answered. Plain language is considered to promote clarity and precision.

The Readership of Legal Texts by Francis Bennion

Consideration of the readership of legal texts aim at clarity being achieved, the requirements differ as
the readers differ. The author considered some definitions of words namely: clarity, simplify, practicable
and what clarity means by legal English.
Legislative readership is a professional one and his whole concern throughout his work has been to
bring improvements in the form of legislation with a view to helping professional users. Even if non legal
people read legislative texts as David Elliott pointed out the readership is still a professional one. In
amending law it must fit in with the body of law or corpus juris. Obscurity in legislation is caused by
complication of thought. A Bill is best drafted from the point of view of its ultimate user and law
legislators should be told exactly what is meant.

Conclusion: bringing clarity in law is slow job though a very worthwhile one. David Elliott was quoted in
the end and to paraphrase drafters should go the extra mile and make drafts as intelligible as possible. If
clarity is paid attention to there would be dramatic improvement and bold experimentation in legal
drafting.

Legislative drafting 1: Clarity and ambiguity/Plain Language (Microsoft Word Document)

Ambiguity and clarity was first discussed followed by why do we need clarity and consistency followed
by the negative question in respect of precision and clarity. A word of caution: style of drafting and types
of legislation was presented. The author went into the types of Ambiguity and the great danger was
discussed where we will disagree over the meaning of very common and very small words, words we
never think about defining. Ranges of number, days, dates and ages and the possible source of
ambiguity in the words that and which were discussed. Serial commas and ambiguity was also discussed.
Ambiguity and the sentence level were tackled from the perspective of a. the placement problem and b.
modifier of nouns.

Gender neutral drafting was tackled under the following heads of principal techniques and other
techniques.

Advantages of plain language drafting were also discussed from the topics of efficiency and exposes
errors.

Gender –neutral drafting- recent commonwealth developments by Sandra Petersson

The subject of gender neutral language and the approaches of various commonwealth jurisdictions were
considered and the UK, New Zealand, Australia and Canada were reviewed.

Changing the masculine rule a. the two-way rule its history, modern revivival and false neutrality were
considered b. the all-gender rules its adoption, neutral but still effective in respect of the all gender rule
was considered the rule’s inclusion of the neuter gender grounds its neutrality. Additional options were
also considered.

Adopting gender neutral language was the third head discussed in this article under the sub heading of
a. Law and Policy, b. the problem of existing legislation, i. cost, ii. Procedure-redrafting complete
statutes: i. third person – plural – they, ii. Third person singular-they, iii. Third person singular ‘he or
she’, iv. third person singular- no pronouns, v. gender neutrality in practice- under which all pronouns
ought to be avoided.
Conclusion: the author concluded by stating that many jurisdictions have not amended the masculine
rule. All pronouns are generally avoided. The policies have had the positive result of ending the use of
male terms to represent women.

Identification of the main points of relevance to the home jurisdiction

The need for clarity and not being ambiguous when drafting is being all the relevance to enhance
drafting techniques in the more advanced commonwealth jurisdictions. It is submitted that same can be
done in my jurisdiction.

Lessons to be learnt by the home jurisdiction

Modern day drafting and the use of different verbs, and words used in the masculine sense to represent
women or feminine words avoidance can be something that is to be encourages in the younger
parliamentary democracies. It implementation and use is something that can be learnt by my home
jurisdiction.