Logic and the Strategy of Lawmaking

Key conclusions

The set of regulatory norms changes frequently 

“The set of regulatory norms that define life in our country changes all the time. It actually changes daily. However, there are spikes that occur at the end of the month, or quarter, or half-year. Now we have two spikes – 1 September and 1 March – that are defined by adoption of those norms due to the adoption of the law on control and supervision,” Andrey Loginov, State Secretary – Deputy Minister of Justice of the Russian Federation.

Modern technologies cannot replace people’s work 

“Legal expertise is a whole art that cannot be subjected to digital transformation. I am confident that only a person, their professional knowledge and their intellect can manage this work,” Yekaterina Egorova, Deputy Secretary General – Head of Legal Department, Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation.

“Not a single computer can replace people in law-making. It is not about drafting a norm. You need to coordinate it with supervisory authorities, your colleagues from the legal department and legislative assembly executive office. <…> A computer will never complete these procedures,” Aleksey Preobrazhenskiy, Deputy Head of Administration – Head of the Legal Directorate, Government of the Ulyanovsk Region.

PROBLEMS

Lack of staff 

“Indeed, drafting norms is a very special legal profession. Not a single educational institution trains such specialists. People defend doctoral and post-doctoral theses and publish books. At the same time, all these books and theses contain and analyze abstracts from the norms we all work on and from rules and regulations of the Duma, the Government and ministries,” Andrey Loginov, State Secretary – Deputy Minister of Justice of the Russian Federation.

“People who carry out expert examination of regulatory norms (not just laws, but all their statutory instruments), as well as anti-corruption and linguistic examination are hard to find. They are one of a kind,” Aleksey Preobrazhenskiy, Deputy Head of Administration – Head of the Legal Directorate, Government of the Ulyanovsk Region.

Most legislative initiatives are submitted for publicity purposes 

“A large portion of our legislative initiatives (at least the ones that were submitted to the State Duma, but not adopted) address the burning issues of the day. Something happened somewhere, so one or two or three initiatives are submitted. An accident or an emergency, etc. There is a whole lot of such legislative initiatives. <…> Our colleagues from different parties are racing to submit legislative initiatives to claim a certain topic without even drafting the text properly. <…> I cannot say whether it is good or bad. <…> In this case, the outcome is secondary. It is more important to state the problem, discuss it, have a debate, ask questions and make it public,” Dmitriy Vyatkin, Deputy of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation.

Law-making does not end with a federal law signed 

“The process that starts with a legislative initiative – or the problem itself – does not end with signing of a federal law. Of course, it means working with statutory instruments, and law administration, and lessons learned, and going back to the text of the adopted law. Sometimes, we face problems when we are unable to find common ground in terms of a federal law,” Pavel Stepanov, Director, Department for Support of Legislative Activities and Legal Regulation of the Government of the Russian Federation.

SOLUTIONS

The need for improving the legislation on prosecutor’s office  

“I suppose that further development of the legislation on the prosecutor’s office needs to target strengthening the state instead of ensuring personal rights, so that the strong state could ensure a citizen’s rights and interests,” Yury Sinelshchikov, First Deputy Chairman of the Committee of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation on State Building and Legislation.

Adopting statutory instruments concurrently with a federal law coming into effect 

“There needs to be correlation between law and statutory instruments so that statutory instruments are adopted concurrently with the federal law coming into effect. It is very important. The gap between different clauses coming into effect is not stipulated by statutory instruments. <…> Generally, the whole package of statutory instruments and clauses should come into effect on this date (the date is stipulated by the law,” Pavel Stepanov, Director, Department for Support of Legislative Activities and Legal Regulation of the Government of the Russian Federation.

For more information, visit the Roscongress Foundation’s Information and Analytical System roscongress.org.

Share: