The debate on how we make laws has intensified in light of the disagreements on the Jan Lokpal Bill. Shamnad made an important point earlier on this blog that there is a democratic deficit in the law-making process at the moment, which needs to be corrected.
Great work. I think this sort of comparative analysis is quite helpful – there was a push in the '90's and early 00's (and perhaps today) to advocate for administrative procedure acts in many countries. India never adopted one (or even tabled one as far as I know), but I think it would make sense to examine in more detail whether such an Act would be useful for India, particularly to help democratize its bureaucracy.
I was wondering though if in your research you came across other countries that so formally delegated legislative drafting to outside groups like the NAC or the hybrid lok pal drafting committee?
Dear Nick, thanks for your comment. I think our current Law Minister was heavily invovled in the Second Administrative Reform Commission under UPA-I, but I believe most of its recommendations are gathering dust.
The research in this report was done by students, I only supervised it. But as far as I can tell, there is no example of a quasi-formal delegation of the legislative function to a body outside the constitutional legislature in any of the jurisdictions we have looked at.
Seminal work of lasting importance. Great work, Tarunabh and team. I will read it in detail during the weekend and come back with comments. It may be sueful to include some examples of public consultation to give an idea of how the process works in practice. For example, how many suggestions were incorporated and how many were not. Were reasons given as to why some suggestions were rejected? This is necessary for any consultation to be true to the spirit of participation.
Venkatesh Nayak, India
The ARC had qualified its recommendation with the remark that a perverse mind defies any reform or remedy. The crux of our problem in law enforcement and implementation is the lack of willingness on the part of the public functionaries to take take responsibility in carrying out their core functions. This has led to perversion being the basic tone in the functioning of every institution. Law making is also approached with the same attitude. More often than not, a new enactment is attempted to evade responsibility for the present predicament rather than to solve the crisis and fine tune the institutions.
Here's another must read post: http://ajayshahblog.blogspot.com/2011/04/legal-process-in-rule-making-success.html
It talks about regulators and their attitude to pre-legislative scrutiny!