A Guide on Writing Legislation in the EU
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A Guide on Writing Legislation in the EU
Are you looking to write a bill, but just don't know how? Or perhaps you just don't know where to begin? Maybe you just need some advice?
Writing legislation might seem intimating, but it is actually more simple than it is seems (at least, here in the EU). This guide is designed to help you out! This guide will help you get through all the steps in crafting your own piece of legislation. Together, we will write our own damn bill!
1. Before You Begin Writing: Do Your Research
Start by forming a clear idea of what kind of topic you want to legislate on. For the purposes of this guide, let's pretend that you've recently watched Netflix's latest hit show, Tiger King, and you've been inspired by Carole Baskin's crusade to save big cats from being owned, bred and sold into captivity. You've now decided that you want to commit yourself to the plights of these big cats, and so you want to write a bill that bans practices that result in big cats being put into cages.
Before you begin writing a bill, take a steady scan through the Acquis Communautaire and the Constitution of the European Union. The Acquis Communautaire consists of all legislation which the European Council has passed. There is a possibility that some form of relevant legislation has already been passed to address or partially address the issue that you have in mind (which, in this case, is the captivity of big cats). You don't necessarily need to go through each and every bill passed by the European Council, but you should definitely look into any previously passed bills that seems vaguely relevant to your topic (perhaps any legislation on animal cruelty, animal ownership or even on public and private parks). You shouldn't shy away from personally contacting the Council Speaker and inquiring if there's ever been any legislation passed on your topic. If there is, it might be a better idea (if needed) to amend the relevant legislation, rather than spending your time and energy to write a duplicate bill.
As you scan through former legislation, pay careful attention to how former bills are written, as well as how the Constitution is formatted. This should give you a feel of how you should format and lay out your own legislation later. Consistency is key, and if you ever want your bill to be properly upheld and enforced by the European Court of Justice, then you ought to write and format your legislation in a manner that is familiar and easy to navigate for Justices.
Apart from doing your research on the forums, it will probably be a good idea to do some very basic research on your topic on the internet as well, as to better inform yourself on your topic, and to gain a grasp on any real life legislation on your topic anywhere in the world. While you should use this information to better inform yourself on your topic, you should under no circumstances copy/paste or plagiarize real life legislation. You may certainly draw inspiration from real life legislation, such as Carole Baskin's very own Big Cat Public Safety Act (which does exist in real life), but it would be very bad idea to plagiarize it. The EU has its very own distinct set of institutions that exist, with our own existing library of legislation, and so many real life pieces of legislation may not fit congruently with the EU's laws and institutions (besides, plagiarism is an unethical and naughty thing to do).
2. Put Your Bill's Purpose and Objective into Words
Time to get down to business. A lot of people struggle to begin the writing process simply because they don’t know where to start. Begin by writing a single sentence on the purpose of your legislation and single sentence on how your legislation will achieve that purpose. For example:
Purpose: To reduce the amount of big cats living in captivity.
How: By banning the ownership, breeding and sale of big cats by private persons and unlicensed organizations in the European Union.Great! Now, if we put those two sentences together, and add the phrase “An Act” in front of it, then we’ll already be one step on our way:
An Act to reduce the amount of big cats living in captivity by banning the ownership, breeding and sale of big cats by private persons and unlicensed organizations in the European Union.
We’ve now created the preamble of our legislation! Congratulations, we’ve taken the first step in completing our legislation. Wasn’t that easy? Almost all pieces of legislation have a preamble at the beginning of the text, which allows legislators and Justices to have a general understanding of what the bill is about. Some preambles are much longer, and go into further detail of the importance of the act, but that sort of information is superfluous and unnecessary. A single sentence or two on the purpose and means of the legislation is more than enough.
3. List the Rules of Your Bill
Now, looking at your preamble, take note of how your legislation intends to achieve its purpose. In this case, the legislation intends on achieving its goal by banning the ownership, breeding and sale of big cats by private persons and unlicensed organizations in the European Union.
It’s time to transform this sentence into a list of rules. Plainly list all the rules that you believe are necessary for the legislation to be effective. List them very simply and in plain language, without going into much detail. As such:
I. The private ownership of big cats by any persons shall be banned
II. Big cats may only be owned by organizations with a license
III. The breeding of big cats by any person or organization without a license shall be banned
IV. The sale or transfer of big cats between any persons or unlicensed organizations shall be bannedGood work. We now have a list of clauses that will make up the first part of our legislation. Now, in order to for these clauses to be both effective and enforceable, we need to be more specific about them. If we left these rules as general as they were, they would be open to a lot of interpretation, abuse, and also possible confusion. For example, what is the license that is being referenced in the three last clauses? What is the difference between a licensed and unlicensed organization? What can one do that the other can’t? Be as specific as possible as to who and what are being impacted by the rules. For example:
I. The private ownership of big cats by any persons shall be banned.
II. Big cats may only be owned by organizations that have a Big Cat Conservation License. Any and all organizations which do not have a Big Cat Conservation License shall be banned from owning big cats.
III. The breeding of big cats by any person or organization that does not have a Big Cat Conservation License shall be banned.
IV. The sale or transfer of big cats between any persons or unlicensed organizations shall be banned. Only organizations with a Big Cat Conservation License may transfer or sell big cats to the ownership of another organization with a Big Cat Conservation License. An Organization with a Big Cat Conservation License may not transfer or sell any big cats to an unlicensed organization.We now have our most general rules in place, but we’re not quite done in specifying all our rules. In most pieces of legislation, this is probably enough. However, in this case, we’ve created a special type of rule that requires more attention. In our example, we’ve created a special type of license known as the Big Cat Conservation License. We’ve already explained what the license does in the rules (the ability to own, breed and sell cats), but we don’t explain how organizations can obtain this license or what organization issues this license. We should specify this now, in a new section. Simply list the generalities of this special rule as we did previously. In this case, we want to focus on how the license is obtained. For example:
I. Big Cat Rescue shall be responsible for Big Cat Conservation Licenses. Organizations which want to own big cats must get a license from Big Cat Rescue
II. Big Cat Rescue may only issue Big Cat Conservation Licenses to organizations if the organizations meets the following criteria:
i) The purpose or mission of the organization is to preserve the lives of big cats
ii) has rigorous rules and regulations in place to protect big cats from harm, injury, sickness and death;
iii) informs and educates the public on big cats and their endangerment
iv) does not allow members of the public to touch or come in 1 metre proximity of any big cats
v) does not seek to explicitly profit or gain business from the ownership of big cats
III. Big Cat Rescue may institute any other criteria they see fit for obtaining a license. Big Cat Rescue may also deny any application for any reasonOnce again, it’s time that we get more specific as to who or what is being impacted or implicated by these rules. We can expand on it such:
I. Big Cat Rescue shall be the sole authority responsible for issuing Big Cat Conservation Licenses. Any organizations which own or intend to own big cats must apply for a Big Cat Conservation License from Big Cat Rescue.
II. Big Cat Rescue may only issue Big Cat Conservation License to organizations if said organizations at least meet all of the following criteria:
i) The purpose or mission of the organization is to preserve the lives of big cats;
ii) has rigorous rules and regulations in place to protect big cats from harm, injury, sickness and death;
iii) informs and educates the public on big cats and their endangerment;
iv) does not allow members of the public to touch or come in 1 metre proximity of any big cats;
v) does not seek to explicitly profit or gain business from the ownership of big cats.
III. Big Cat Rescue may institute any other criteria they see fit for obtaining a Big Cat Conservation License. Big Cat Rescue may also deny any application for a Big Cat Conservation License for any given reason, even if the organization meet all criteria laid out in this Section.Nice stuff! We’ve now made our rules, and we’ve even specified and elaborated on some of the special rules we’ve made. We’ve also just completed the majority of our writing! You may have noticed, though, that we’ve created an institution to enforce the rules that we made, which leads us to the next part of the legislation writing process.
4. Make an Institution to Enforce Your Bill (IF NECESSARY)
Some pieces of legislation may require a specific institution to enforce its rules. This often isn’t the case, as it’s usually up to the member state and their own governmental authorities to uphold and enforce the EU’s laws. However, in our case, we’ve created a special license known as the Big Cat Conservation License, which the governmental authorities of the member states have no authority over. All authority over this special license lies in the hands of Big Cat Rescue. Thus, we need to outline how this organization will look like.
We’ve already established what this organization does (it grants licenses) previously, and so we need to further elaborate on where this organization is located, who governs it, how the governor is chosen, and anything else of administrative note. At the bare minimum, you should answer these following questions:
Where is it located?
Who governs it?
How is/are the governor(s) chosen?
Is there any other institutional information?These won’t necessarily be all the questions you will have to ask yourself. If the institution is particularly complex, then it will likely require more detail. Think critically of what an effective governing body would look like. Do you want it to have one person who leads the organization, or should it consists of multiple stakeholders that need to reach consensus? Will each member state get a stakeholder? Will the stakeholders elect a leader among them, or should the leader be appointed? Should the Commission appoint a leader or should the European Council? If it ought to be the Commission, then which Commissioner? Why is Councillor Firoux the sexist Councillor? These are all useful questions to ask yourself. This is how we could answer those questions:
Where is it located? -> Europolis
Who governs it? -> A Director
How is/are the governor(s) chosen? -> Internal Affairs Commissioner appoints them
Is there any other institutional information? -> Big Cat Rescue will also be its own sanctuary for big catsAwesome, we’ve now outlined this entire section. We can transform it into a detailed section as such:
I. Big Cat Rescue shall be located in the Free City of Europolis.
II. Big Cat Rescue shall be administered by a Director, who shall also make all decisions on whether to accept or reject applications for Big Cat Conservation Licenses.
III. The Director shall be appointed by the Commissioner of Internal Affairs.
IV. Big Cat Rescue shall also serve as a sanctuary for big cats, including for big cats that have come from persons or organizations which have breached this Act.Europolis is the capital of the European Union and the city where virtually all of our institutions are located. We locate our institutions in Europolis because it is our region’s capital, and also because it is the one location that is constant and stable in the EU. Member states tend to enter and leave the European Union all the time, or fall into civil war or social strife. Europolis is forever.
Institutions led by consensus rather than by one decision-maker tend to be more slow-moving and inefficient. However, they allow for more opinion and deliberation. Since the institution in our example is relatively uncomplicated and probably doesn’t need a wide array of input, it is far simpler to place it under the leadership of one person. Likewise, requiring a group of stakeholders of the European Council to elect a leader is also slower and less efficient than the Commission simply appointing a leader (it’s also worth noting, that in our region’s history, stakeholders and Councillors tend to forget to elect leaders of our administrative institutions, while Commissioners tend to be marginally better at doing so). Thus, we’ve put Big Cat Rescue under the leadership of one Director (who ought to be Carole Baskin). We also put the institution under the purview of the Commissioner of Internal Affairs, who shall appoint the Director.
The Premier Commissioner is in overall charge of the direction of the European Union, but institutionally, is only in charge of economic affairs, and thus should only be tasked with appointing individuals to intuitions regarding economic matters. The Commissioner of Internal Affairs, who is in charge of enforcing the EU’s laws, and maintaining institutions regarding the internal affairs of the region, is generally the most relevant Commissioner to trust with appointing people to our administrative institutions. The administrative portfolio of the Commissioner of Foreign Affairs is related only to our region’s relations with other regions abroad, and so the Foreign Affairs Commissioner should only be trusted with organizations relating to our region’s international affairs (which, only a very few of our institutions are).
5. Create a Timeline and Any Punishments for Breaking Your Bill's Rules
You are now basically at the end of your bill writing process. At this point you’ve created all the rules of your bill, and if necessary, an institution to enforce the rules of the bill. One critical process remains: what happens if someone breaks the rules? This section is relatively easy to produce, as the vast majority of pieces of legislation in the EU all follow a similar format.
Begin by creating a timeline when the rules are to be enforced. In the EU, it is a normative expectation that all member states will have at least 6 months to adjust their laws with any bill passed by the Council. Each member state has their own legislative process to ratify a Council bill, and often, especially in the EU, the legislative processes of member states tend to be quite complex and drawn out. Anything less than 6 months could be unrealistic for certain member states, and so it is generally considered hasty to have anything enforced before 6 months after the passage of your bill.
Next, you should specify that breaches of your bill will be considered a punishable offense (and if applicable, a criminal offense), and specify who has the authority of overseeing who gets punished. If you like, you may also specify what the exact punishments ought to be for those who break the rules, but be particularly careful about this. Each EU member state has their own criminal code, their own justice system, and will likely have their own opinion on your bill, and so being very exact about the consequences of breaching your bill may result in a lot of debate (and potential opposition) in the Council. It would be considered a safer option to simply refer to breaches of your bill as a ‘punishable offense’ (and criminal offense, if applicable), and allow the member states themselves to sort out how the specifics of how those offenses look like. However, if certain punishments have already been laid out in your bill, such as our clause on Big Cat Rescue confiscating the big cats of persons or organizations which have breached our act, then be sure to include it in this section.
Also be sure to mention that if member states fail to uphold your bill, that they may be tried at the European Court of Justice. The European Court of Justice is the highest court of the EU, and is tasked with upholding the EU’s laws and its Constitution.
We can write out this section as such:
I. All member states of the European Union are required to harmonize their national law(s) with this Act in 6 months of time from its approval by the European Council.
II. Breaches of this Act shall be considered a punishable and criminal offense in member states. Failure of member states to enforce this Act may be tried in the European Court of Justice.
III. Persons or organizations which breach this Act must surrender any all big cats in their possession to Big Cat Rescue.Awesome! We’re now done writing all the main parts of our bill.
6. Define Technical Terms You’ve Used in Your Bill (IF NECCESSARY)
In order to maximise the efficacy of your bill, and to make it as clear as possible, you should define any technical, complex or unusual terminology you’ve put into your legislation. Defining technical terminology will help make your bill more clear and concise, which will reduce the amount of interpretation that member states or the European Court of Justice will have to perform in upholding your bill. The more room there is for interpretation, the more room there is for possible abuse of your bill.
This is often the section that many legislators get wrong. Many legislators either neglect to include a definition section (where it sometimes may be needed), or simply define too many words that don’t actually require further clarification. It would be advised that you should only define terms that are especially technical or complex that may not be understood by the layperson, or if you want to explicitly restrict the use and interpretation of a term as much as possible. As such, not every bill will need words or terms to be defined, but our example definitely will.
In our example bill we’ve written together, we use term ‘big cats’. On face value, this is a very vague term. Our bill could easily be interpreted as meaning cats which are large or obese, rather than the technical felinological term, which refers to a certain genus of cats. As the purpose of our bill is to protect the latter version of cats, and not fat (but cute) household cats (which we still believe ought to be owned, sold and bred), we should define what we mean by ‘big cats’. We can define the term as such:
I. Big cat(s): animal(s) of the Panthera genus, which includes tigers, lions, leopards, snow leopards and jaguars.
Looking through our legislation, this is likely the only term we need to define. While our legislation specifically mentions certain actions, such as ‘ownership’, ‘breeding’, ‘sale’ and ‘transfer’, it can also be to your advantage to leave terms like these as general as possible. Unlike the term ‘big cats’, we want to cast our net as wide as possible when it comes to offenses of the act. Anything that could vaguely be classified as ownership, breeding, the sale of or the transfer of big cats could be interpreted as a breach of our act, and would make it very easy to defend in the European Court of Justice. Obviously you wouldn’t want to leave the terms as broad and large in scope as possible, lest everything became a breach of our act, but you would want to make it as easy to defend as possible.
In this guide, it is recommended that you only define your terms after all the steps previously outlined, as it ought to be the last step of your writing process. Some legislators begin their writing process by defining their terms (as it’s to be formatted as the first section of legislation), but it doesn’t make sense to define terms that you haven’t used yet (and may not even use in the bill itself). It’s only once you’re done writing the bulk of your legislation that you’re aware of what terminologies and language you’ve used, so it only makes sense to define them afterwards.
After defining our terms, we have essentially finished all our writing, and our bill is officially complete in terms of content. We’ve created a preamble for our bill, created all its rules, an institution to enforce our rules, created a timeline and set of punishments for our rules, and we’ve now defined all our terms. All that is left to do is to title our legislation and format it correctly.
7. Title and Format Your Bill
Give your legislation a short and concise title. The best titles are straight to the point. Some good examples from our Acquis Communautaire include the Ocean Protection Act, Consumer Rights Act, and the European Heritage Site Act. These titles are straight forward, uncomplicated, and you can make a very good and educated guess on what the legislation is about just from reading them. Absolutely no title needs to be 7 words or longer. Keep titles to 6 words or less. Carole Baskin's real life bill is called the Big Cat Public Safety Act, which is a good name, but even we can make it slightly better and more simple: how about the Big Cat Safety Act?
Complete your legislation by formatting it correctly. This is how our example legislation would look like if we were to format it correctly:
Big Cat Safety Act
Proposed by Cllr. Jane Doe (Nation)
PREAMBLE
An Act to reduce the amount of big cats living in captivity by banning the ownership, breeding and sale of big cats by private persons and unlicensed organizations in the European Union.
SECTION I. DEFINITIONS
I. Big cat(s): animal(s) of the Panthera genus, which includes tigers, lions, leopards, snow leopards and jaguars.
SECTION II. REGULATIONS
I. The private ownership of big cats by any and all persons shall be banned.
II. Big cats may only be owned by organizations that have a Big Cat Conservation License. Any and all organizations which do not have a Big Cat Conservation License shall be banned from owning big cats.
III. The breeding of big cats by any person or organization that does not have a Big Cat Conservation License shall be banned.
IV. The sale or transfer of big cats between any and all persons or unlicensed organizations shall be banned. Organizations with a Big Cat Conservation License may only transfer or sell big cats to the ownership of another organization with a Big Cat Conservation License. An Organization with a Big Cat Conservation License may not transfer or sell any big cats to an unlicensed organization.
SECTION III. BIG CAT CONSERVATION LICENSES
I. Big Cat Rescue shall be the sole authority responsible for issuing Big Cat Conservation Licenses. Any organizations which own or intend to own big cats must apply for a Big Cat Conservation License from Big Cat Rescue.
II. Big Cat Rescue may only issue Big Cat Conservation Licenses to organizations if said organizations at least meet all of the following criteria:
i) The purpose or mission of the organization is to preserve the lives of big cats;
ii) has rigorous rules and regulations in place to protect big cats from harm, injury, sickness and death;
iii) informs and educates the public on big cats and their endangerment;
iv) does not allow members of the public to touch or come in 1 metre proximity of any big cats;
v) does not seek to explicitly profit or gain business from the ownership of big cats.
III. Big Cat Rescue may institute any other criteria they see fit for obtaining a Big Cat Conservation License. Big Cat Rescue may also deny any application for a Big Cat Conservation License for any given reason, even if the organization meet all criteria laid out in this Section.
SECTION IV. BIG CAT RESCUE
I. Big Cat Rescue shall be located in the Free City of Europolis.
II. Big Cat Rescue shall be administered by a Director, who shall also make all decisions on whether to accept or reject applications for Big Cat Conservation Licenses.
III. The Director shall be appointed by the Commissioner of Internal Affairs.
IV. Big Cat Rescue shall also serve as a sanctuary for big cats, including for big cats that have come from persons or organizations which have breached this Act.
SECTION V. ENFORCEMENT
I. All member states of the European Union are required to harmonize their national law(s) with this Act in 6 months of time from its approval by the European Council.
II. Breaches of this Act shall be considered a punishable and criminal offense in member states. Failure of member states to enforce this Act may be tried in the European Court of Justice.
III. Persons or organizations which breach this Act must surrender any all big cats in their possession to Big Cat Rescue.
As you’d expect, the title of the legislation should come first. The name of the councillor proposing the legislation should be made evident below the title, with their country of origin in brackets. The preamble should be the opening text of the legislation, which can be either formatted as the first section of act, or as a standalone text. The preamble should be followed by the definitions section (if there is one), which in turn should be followed by the sections which state the main rules and regulations of the bill. Any special rules or regulations should be in their own section, such as the Big Cat Conservation License seen in our example bill. If there is an institution which enforces your legislation’s rules, then that should be mentioned in the next section that follows. The section on timelines, punishments, penalties and the European Court of Justice should always come last.
Each section of your legislation should be referred to as a section and should be numerated accordingly, with a title that describes the section (all in bold and uppercase text). All sections and clauses should preferably be numerated with Roman numerals (I, II, III, etc.), but it is also acceptable to use Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3, etc.). Sub-calluses should either be numerated with Roman numerals in the lower case (i, ii, iii, etc.) or as lower case Latin script (a, b, c, etc.). No matter which method you use, there is one rule you must always abide by: consistency. For example, if you are going to use Roman numerals, then stick to using Roman numerals throughout your legislation, and don’t use Arabic numerals in any other section of your bill.
7. Present Your Bill
After formatting your bill, you are now ready to present your legislation to the European Council. It is recommended that you scan through your legislation one more time before posting, looking for any grammatical or spelling errors. Double-check that your bill is formatted correctly, by either comparing it to the example legislation in this guide, or to pieces of legislation found in the Acquis Communautaire.
Don’t fret too much about your legislation being perfect. Besides the spelling, grammar and formatting of your bill, there is nothing else about your bill that could ever be considered objectively perfect. People might find problems or oppose your legislation for any given reason, or no reason at all. Likewise, there might be some who will support your legislation even if it’s a total hot mess. No matter whether your legislation is well received or not, many members of the EU will seek to amend it so that it transforms into a more agreeable bill in the end, and so you should also be accepting and open-minded to your bill changing before you even propose it.
Congratulations, you’ve now written and proposed a bill to the European Council! Debate starts NOW!
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LEGISLATION EXAMPLE TEMPLATE
Big Cat Safety Act
Proposed by Cllr. Jane Doe (Nation)
PREAMBLE
An Act to reduce the amount of big cats living in captivity by banning the ownership, breeding and sale of big cats by private persons and unlicensed organizations in the European Union.
SECTION I. DEFINITIONS
I. Big cat(s): animal(s) of the Panthera genus, which includes tigers, lions, leopards, snow leopards and jaguars.
SECTION II. REGULATIONS
I. The private ownership of big cats by any and all persons shall be banned.
II. Big cats may only be owned by organizations that have a Big Cat Conservation License. Any and all organizations which do not have a Big Cat Conservation License shall be banned from owning big cats.
III. The breeding of big cats by any person or organization that does not have a Big Cat Conservation License shall be banned.
IV. The sale or transfer of big cats between any and all persons or unlicensed organizations shall be banned. Organizations with a Big Cat Conservation License may only transfer or sell big cats to the ownership of another organization with a Big Cat Conservation License. An Organization with a Big Cat Conservation License may not transfer or sell any big cats to an unlicensed organization.
SECTION III. BIG CAT CONSERVATION LICENSES
I. Big Cat Rescue shall be the sole authority responsible for issuing Big Cat Conservation Licenses. Any organizations which own or intend to own big cats must apply for a Big Cat Conservation License from Big Cat Rescue.
II. Big Cat Rescue may only issue Big Cat Conservation Licenses to organizations if said organizations at least meet all of the following criteria:
i) The purpose or mission of the organization is to preserve the lives of big cats;
ii) has rigorous rules and regulations in place to protect big cats from harm, injury, sickness and death;
iii) informs and educates the public on big cats and their endangerment;
iv) does not allow members of the public to touch or come in 1 metre proximity of any big cats;
v) does not seek to explicitly profit or gain business from the ownership of big cats.
III. Big Cat Rescue may institute any other criteria they see fit for obtaining a Big Cat Conservation License. Big Cat Rescue may also deny any application for a Big Cat Conservation License for any given reason, even if the organization meet all criteria laid out in this Section.
SECTION IV. BIG CAT RESCUE
I. Big Cat Rescue shall be located in the Free City of Europolis.
II. Big Cat Rescue shall be administered by a Director, who shall also make all decisions on whether to accept or reject applications for Big Cat Conservation Licenses.
III. The Director shall be appointed by the Commissioner of Internal Affairs.
IV. Big Cat Rescue shall also serve as a sanctuary for big cats, including for big cats that have come from persons or organizations which have breached this Act.
SECTION V. ENFORCEMENT
I. All member states of the European Union are required to harmonize their national law(s) with this Act in 6 months of time from its approval by the European Council.
II. Breaches of this Act shall be considered a punishable and criminal offense in member states. Failure of member states to enforce this Act may be tried in the European Court of Justice.
III. Persons or organizations which breach this Act must surrender any all big cats in their possession to Big Cat Rescue.
LEGISLATION EXAMPLE FORUM CODE
