Why do we need a new draft law “On lawmaking”?

First Deputy Chairman of The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, Ruslan Stefanchuk, announced the draft of a new law on Lawmaking. If we understand correctly, and this is a draft law that was previously passed under the working title “On regulations”, then this is a really important initiative. Earlier, the Agency for legislative initiatives participated in the development of the draft law “On regulations”.

The main purpose of the draft law is to standardize lawmaking in Ukraine. That is, to offer a systematic approach to improve lawmaking. In particular, the draft law proposes:

  • to enshrine the principles of legal certainty and proportionality;
  • determine uniform requirements for the structure of laws and regulations;
  • make public consultations mandatory before the registration of all laws and regulations;
  • determine the hierarchy of laws and regulations;
  • introduce a single centralized register of acts;
  • identify ways to resolve conflicts and gaps in legal regulation;
  • introduce legal monitoring and evaluation of the effectiveness of the application of norms.

The need to pass this draft law is due to the large number of existing regulations that are just continuing to appear. The ease with which Ukrainian MPs can register draft laws, the regular violation of parliamentary procedures, the lack of established long-term planning practices, and the lack of well-established communication between the subjects of the legislative initiative form the generally chaotic nature of policy-making.

In addition, we emphasize the current low level of rule-making techniques. Draft laws are often registered with typos, punctuation errors, and incorrect article and sub-article numbers.

Initiating completely different, often inconsistent with each other or with the Government’s Program of Activities, legislative initiatives a priori cannot ensure the sustainable and gradual development of Ukraine in any particular direction. Thus, the development of an effective policy development/lawmaking system, coordination, approval, evaluation, and revision remains an essential task for both the political leadership and Ukrainian society as a whole.

However, the draft law alone is not enough for radical changes in this direction. We need training of various state bodies involved in lawmaking and effective mechanisms to ensure the implementation of norms designed to stop “low-quality” lawmaking.