Thornton’s Legislative Drafting

Abstract

I have been using and enjoying Thornton’s Legislative Drafting for over 30 years, and although I cannot say that I have consulted it regularly or frequently, my occasional resorts to its wisdom have generally been rewarded with something of value, particularly in my early years as a drafter. One thing that all practitioners of the art of legislative drafting agree (and it is very possibly the only thing on which they all agree) is that you cannot teach legislative drafting at a theoretical level, and one can learn the art only by performing it under constructive supervision. For that reason, office manuals in legislative drafting offices that attempt to constrain the drafter to follow set devices and patterns to deal with particular legislative situations are notoriously doomed to failure, because the drafter needs to be free to apply her or his mind to the widest possible set of legal, political and other circumstances in crafting each provision, whether it appears to follow well-trodden policy paths or to be entirely novel.