PARLIAMENT AND DEMOCRACY - Inter-Parliamentary Union

consideration of a bill more effectively so that more time is made
available to consider those parts of a bill which are of interest to
the Opposition and backbenchers, while less time may be devoted
to those parts of the bill which are more straightforward and less
controversial.
The committee listed four basic criteria which a reformed legislative
process should meet:
■ The Government of the day must be assured of getting its legislation
through in reasonable time
■ The Opposition in particular and Members in general must have a
full opportunity to discuss and seek to change provisions to which
they attach importance
■ All parts of a bill must be properly considered
■ Bills must be properly prepared so as not to require a mass of new
Government amendments.
Law quality
An effective parliament (I): The national level I 123
This last criterion above raises the issue of the quality of bills, which is a
concern of many parliaments facing a press of legislation, especially acute for
those countries required to harmonise their laws with European Community
requirements. In response to the problem of inadequate drafting, the Danish
Parliament, for example, established a joint working commission with the
Government on ‘law quality’. As a result the Government has issued a detailed
set of guidelines on law quality to the civil servants at the individual ministries
where bills are prepared, detailing a number of central requirements for the
drafting of legislation. In addition, ‘a Bill must contain an account of its
financial and administrative consequences for the public sector and the
business community, its environmental consequences and its relation to
Community law.’
Ensuring the constitutionality of proposed legislation is another aspect of
law quality. In the Finnish Parliament this is the responsibility of the Speaker,
assisted by a Constitutional Law Committee.
The task of the Constitutional Law Committee in supervising the constitutionality
of laws is to examine if a bill is in harmony with the
Constitution or if there is a discrepancy between them. In the latter
case the Committee also indicates how the bill ought to be amended