Parliamentary counsel are lawyers who prepare legislation that it is proposed to pass into law. The term Parliamentary draftsman is also widely used. These terms are used in relation to the United Kingdom parliament, and other parliaments on the Westminster system. The official title, and organization, of the parliamentary counsel varies between legislatures. For example, those who draft government legislation for the UK parliament form the Parliamentary Counsel Office (established in 1869 under the title of the Office of Parliamentary Counsel) while the Office of the Scottish Parliamentary Counsel drafts legislation for the Scottish Parliament, the Office of the Legislative Counsel drafts legislation for the Northern Ireland Assembly and the Office for the Welsh Legislative Counsel performs the same role for the Welsh Government. In the Republic of Ireland, there is an Office of the Parliamentary Counsel to Government. In Australia, each state, territory and the federal government has an Office of the Parliamentary Counsel.
The job of a parliamentary draftsman is to draft the detailed form of proposed laws, in a way that will accurately reflect the intentions of the politicians who are promulgating them, without leaving loopholes or producing perverse results. This is an almost impossible task, and the pursuit of exact and watertight legislation has often resulted in obscure and convoluted language. Such language has been criticised both by government bodies such as the committee under Sir David Renton that reported in 1975 (and recommended drafting which was more based on principles than specific details to address every possible situation).
In parliamentary discussion, the draftsman is rarely if ever referred to by name, but only as an office. However, the post has been held by a number of distinguished lawyers, for example Bernard O'Dowd in Australia, John Ferguson McLennan specialising in Scottish law (which though enacted entirely in the UK parliament from 1707 until 1999, is distinct from English law), and William Philip Schreiner in South Africa.
Famous quotes containing the word counsel:
“Critics generally come to be critics not by reason of their fitness for this, but of their unfitness for anything else. Books should be tried by a judge and jury as though they were a crime, and counsel should be heard on both sides.”
—Samuel Butler (1835–1902)