Legislative Texts
The legislative process in the EU
Proposal, recommendation, communication from Commission, Green Paper, consultation, studies, draft legislation, debate, amendments, final draft, adoption
Consolidation = incorporating changes (no official authenticity)
Legislative consolidation = consolidated version goes through legislative procedure to become adopted
EP and Council procedures
• Assent procedure• Cooperation procedure (few areas)• Co-decision procedure (most areas)• Consultation procedure (little used
now)
Assent procedure
Tracing the procedure
• Oeil: Legislative Observatory analyses and monitors – the interinstitutional decision-making
process– role of EP in shaping legislation– activities of various institutions
involved in legislative process
Oeil
• http://www.europarl.europa.eu/oeil/• Contains procedural factfiles
– searchable by type, topic, institution
Types of EU legislation
• EU: primary legislation– treaties– international agreements
• EU: secondary legislation– binding: regulations, directives,
decisions – non-binding: recommendation, opinion
EU Binding instruments
• Regulation: general application, binding in all Member States, no need for national authorities to do anything
• Directive: binding but Member States decide how to implement
• Decision: binding for those to whom it applies
UN Resolutions and decisions
‘Resolutions’ are formal expressions of the opinion or will of United Nations organs.
‘Decisions’
Legally binding status
• Resolutions of the Security Council• Treaties• International Law
EU drafting principlesThe Joint Practical
Guide• The drafting of a legislative act must be:
– clear, easy to understand and unambiguous– simple, concise, containing no unnecessary
elements– precise, leaving no uncertainty in the mind of
the reader– appropriate to type of act and addressee– succinct, internally consistent and consistent
with other legislation
Translation issues
1. “The original text must be particularly simple, clear and direct, since any over-complexity or ambiguity, however slight, could result in inaccuracies, approximations or real mistranslations in one or more of the other Community languages”.
2. “The use of expressions and phrases — in particular, but not exclusively, legal terms — too specific to the author’s own language or legal system, will increase the risk of translation problems”.
UN drafting guidelines
• UN editorial manual states:
• Goals: clear, simple, concise, action-oriented writing
Structure of acts 1
• Title = info to identify act– if amending act, all acts amended need to be given by
number– number, date, year– short title possible
• Preamble = citations, recitals– Citation: sets out legal basis of act (e.g. treaty): ‘Having
regard to …’– Recital: reasons for/background to provisions of
enacting terms : ‘Whereas…’ – numbered
Structure of acts 2
• Enacting terms = legislative part: articles may be grouped in titles, chapters, sections– no non-normative statements– no reproduction or paraphrasing from other
legislation– first article may define subject matter and scope
of act– terms can be defined in single article at
beginning
Translation and drafting guides
EU Access to language resourceshttp://ec.europa.eu/translation/index_en.htm
EU Interinstitutional style guide, in all languages:http://publications.europa.eu/code/en/en-
000500.htmEU Joint Practical Guide (drafting)http://eur-lex.europa.eu/en/techleg/index.htmUN Editorial Manualhttp://69.94.137.26/editorialcontrol/index.htm
EU TASK
• Consult the annex of the Joint Practical Guide. Find the model for a Regulation in English. You can also look at examples of Regulations in Eur-lex. Draft a simple Regulation in English on the topic you researched last week. Investigate how it might be translated into your other language by looking at the other language versions of the model for a Regulation. Work individually or in
pairs.
UN Task
• Look at Resolutions in English (eg. of the General Assembly or Security Council) in the document section of the UN website. Also look at the UN editorial manual to learn about the format of a Resolution. Draft a simple Resolution in English on the topic you researched last week. Investigate how it might be translated into your other language by looking at the other language versions of resolutions. Work individually or in pairs.
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