On May 22, 2019, the Council of Ministers of East-Timor approved a Resolution on Legislative Drafting Rules, which assembles a set of new rules for the government to draft legislation.
To be applied in all ministries, it encompasses new standards for government legislative procedures. The purpose is to enhance accuracy on both the preparatory research and the justification for new decrees and bylaws from the Council of Ministers. It will also apply to proposed new Acts from the Council of Ministers to the National Parliament, thus aiming to ensure higher quality legal diplomas.
The government hopes that the new requirements will contribute for new legislative initiatives to be introduced by a brief study, pointing the national problem that the law seeks to resolve, and the reasons why the government considers a bill to be the best solution for it.
The main goal is to promote a better legal system and avoid copying existing legislation from other countries, which are often not adjusted to the specificities of its own.
The quality of legislative production conditions a Country’s compliance with the Rule of Law. Therefore, such an innovation reveals the growing relevance of better regulation and its discipline, which aims to ensure the best internal functioning possible of one’s Government’s legislative procedure.
Besides, the current law now includes material rules, improving the quality of legislation, namely the decision and its design, allowing it to guide, both politically and legally, the entire subsequent procedure.
This Resolution follows the Resolution on Better Legislation approved by the Council of Ministers of East-Timor on January 16, 2019.
The goal of Resolution on Better Legislation is to improve the legislative process, from the decision to legislate to the entry in force of the legislation. This way, the legal system will become more coherent.
Read the Legislative Drafting Rules Resolution here.
Read the Better Regulation Resolution here.
