Best Practices for Legislating

[Baron Alexandreu Davinescu]

There's been some discussion about best practices for writing a bill, and that makes sense.  We should try to have a rough consensus.  On the last Witt, I had a guide which was used for a long time.  But a posted list of suggested guidelines might be better than the pamphlet we previously used.

Currently, my suggested list would include these principles:

• A bill should include an italicized list of reasons for its passage and any necessary context, presented as a list of statements and with each such statement beginning with "WHEREAS"
• A bill should present its proposed changes clearly.  Each proposed change should begin with a bolded word: "THEREFORE" for the first change, and "FURTHERMORE" for each change after that.
• The bill should say exactly what the Ziu would be doing if the bill was passed.  Typically this entails amending el Lexhatx or the Organic Law, and so the specific location of the change should be stated.
• If existing law is being altered, the current text should be included with the bill, for easy comparison with the proposed changes.
• The Ziu may only make changes which fall within its ennumerated powers, found at Org.VII.3.
• Laws may mandate specific actions, bestow specific powers, or authorize optional actions.
• It is permissible, but generally discouraged, to add recommendations or advice in the law.  This should be done only when deemed necessary for effective implementation of other provisions.
• The use of the quoting function can be helpful to set out blocks of text in a readable way.

An example bill might look like this:

WHEREAS the sandwich is the ideal food, and

WHEREAS it is agreed by all that we need to endorse it,

THEREFORE the whatever section of el Lexhatx is modified to include this additional provision: