"Legislative failure" [2019] ELECD 1738; in Mousmouti, Maria (ed), "Designing Effective Legislation" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2019) 129

Book Title: Designing Effective Legislation

Editor(s): Mousmouti, Maria

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

Section: Chapter 7

Section Title: Legislative failure

Number of pages: 21

Abstract/Description:

Legislative failure is a popular topic, yet one often addressed in a shallow way. Failure raises difficult questions: What counts as legislative failure? How can it be objectively recognised and explained? By whom? When? And what comes after? Ultimately, is it a lawmaking or a political issue? Understanding failure, as the flipside of effectiveness, is the only way to understand pathologies in legislation, correct and prevent them. Failure in legislative design, in drafting or in implementation puts in motion corrective mechanisms like amendments, simplification, improvements in accessibility or broader law reform. But is this enough to prevent future failure? Effective lawmaking goes beyond short term responses to require an open and proactive approach that acknowledges, diagnoses and analyses failure and integrates it in lawmaking through scepticism and reflective practice.