Law, Development, and Legislative Drafting in English-Speaking Africa

Robert B. Seidman

doi:10.1017/S0022278X0005415X

Law, Development, and Legislative Drafting in English-Speaking Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 November 2008

Robert B. Seidman

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Legislation in the former British colonial territories exhibited a pair of paradoxes. First, it spoke in legalese, a patois that only judges and lawyers can read easily. Many laws concerning development, however, addressed ordinary citizens. Second, drafters invented and used a specialised style to reduce official and judicial discretion by making legislation more precise, but this frequently endowed officials with discretion as broad as the unbroken sky. In Africa, the uses of legalese seemed to war with the purposes for which it was developed.

Type: Articles
Information: The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 19 , Issue 1 , March 1981 , pp. 133 - 161

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022278X0005415X [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1981

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References

^{page 133 note 1} Zambia, Laws, 1961, Cap. 217, section 21.

^{page 133 note 2} Ibid. section 26.

^{page 134 note 1} Friedman, L., ‘Law and its Language’, in George Washington Law Review (Washington, D.C.), 33, 1964, p. 563.Google Scholar

^{page 134 note 2} Wydick, R. C., ‘Plain English for Lawyers’, in California Law Review (Berkeley), 66, 1978, p. 727.Google Scholar

^{page 134 note 3} The Preparation of Legislation. Report of a Committee Appointed by the Lord President of the Council (London, 1975), Cmnd. 6053, p. 27,Google Scholar hereinafter referred to as the Renton Report.

^{page 135 note 1} Dale, Richard, Legislative Drafting: a new approach (London, 1977), pp. 331–2.Google Scholar

^{page 135 note 2} Aubert, V., ‘Some Social Functions of Legislation’, in Acta Sociologica (Copenhagen), 10, 1966, pp. 98 and 107,Google Scholar reprinted in Aubert, (ed.), Sociology of Law (Harmondsworth, 1969), pp. 116 and 123.Google Scholar

^{page 135 note 3} SirThring, Henry, Practical Legislation. the composition and language of acts of parliament and bureau documents (Boston, 1902, 2nd edn.).Google Scholar

^{page 135 note 4} Zambia, Laws, 1965, Cap. 199, Section 16(1)(f).

^{page 135 note 5} Tanzania, Control of Prices Ordinance, 1951, Cap. 309.

^{page 135 note 6} Kenya, Sisal Industry Act, 1965, Cap. 341, section 13(3).

^{page 135 note 7} For example, Kenya, Preventive Detention Act, 1967, Cap. 91.

^{page 136 note 1} Zambia Youth Service Act, 1964, Cap. 161.

^{page 137 note 1} Kenya, Agricultural Produce Marketing Act, 1952, Cap. 320.

^{page 138 note 1} Jamieson, N. J., ‘Towards a Systematic Statute Law’, in Otago Law Review (Dunedin), 3, 1976, pp. 542 and 543 fn.Google Scholar

^{page 138 note 2} Thring, op. cit. pp. 5–6.

^{page 138 note 3} See Winch, P., The Idea of a Social Science and its Relation to Philosophy (London, 1958).Google Scholar

^{page 138 note 4} For example, the form, ‘To Doe and his heirs’ to convey a fee simple, Wolfe v. Shelley, in English Reports, 76, pp. 199 and 206 (K.B. 1779–1781)Google Scholar; or the traditional ‘for $1.00 and other valuable considerations’, ensuring ‘the magical essence of contractness’. Mellinkoff, David, The Language of the Law (Boston, 1963), p. 180.Google Scholar

^{page 139 note 1} The Renton Report.

^{page 140 note 1} See Thompson, E. P., Whigs and Hunters: the origin of the Black Act (New York, 1975.Google Scholar

^{page 140 note 2} For example, the statute creates a felony ‘unlawfully and maliciously’ to ‘kill, destroy or steal’ any red or fallow deer; a few clauses further on it became a felony again ‘unlawfully and willfully’ to ‘hunt, wound, kill, destroy or steal any red or fallow deer’ in the Crown's forests or chases, enclosed in a fence, where deer are usually kept – as though the first offence did not comprehend the second. Some crimes required that they be done ‘unlawfully and willfully’, others ‘unlawfully and maliciously’, others ‘unlawfully’, and still others without any mental state at all.

^{page 140 note 3} Thring, op. cit. pp. 2–3. He gives an example, from an amendment proposed by a Q.C. in 1865: ‘Every dog found trespassing on enclosed land unaccompanied by the registered owner of such or other person who shall on being asked give his true name and address, may then and there be destroyed by such occupier or by his orders.

^{page 140 note 4} Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Vol. I (Washington, D.C. 1905 edn.), p. 65.Google Scholar

^{page 141 note 1} See Chambliss, W. J. and Seidman, R. B., Law, Order and Power (Reading, Mass., 1971).Google Scholar

^{page 141 note 2} Hay, D., ‘Poaching and the Game Laws on Cannock Chase’, in Hay, et al. (eds.), Albion's Fatal Tree (New York, 1975), pp. 189 and 242.Google Scholar Many of the elements of the Rule of Law have the same origins; for example, the demand for equality before the law derived from middle-class objections to the aristocratic thumb on the scales of justice.

^{page 141 note 3} Ibid. p. 236. The game laws endowed prosecutors with great discretion in making their charges.

^{page 141 note 4} ‘Howard Blauvelt Looks Ahead’, December 1975, quoted in Yerachmiel Kugel and Gruenberg, Gladys W., International Payoffs: dilemma for business (Lexington, 1977), p. 64.Google Scholar

^{page 141 note 5} R. v. Dawes and Maten, 4 Burr. 212 (1767).

^{page 142 note 1} Gerth, H. H. and Mills, C. Wright (eds.), From Max Weber (London, 1946), p. 220.Google Scholar

^{page 142 note 2} Dicey, A. V., Introduction to the Study of the Law of the Constitution (London, 1939), p. 188Google Scholar; see also von Hayek, F. S., The Road to Serfdom (Chicago, 1944), p. 72.Google Scholar

^{page 142 note 3} Bentham, Jeremy, Theory of Legislation (Boston, 1840 edn.),Google Scholar translated by R. Hildreth.

^{page 142 note 4} Here I draw heavily upon Ferguson, R. B., ‘Legal Ideology and Commercial Law Codes’, in British Journal of Law and Society (London), 4, 1977, p. 18.CrossRef Google Scholar

^{page 142 note 5} I. W. Blackstone, ‘Commentaries on the Law 69’, quoted in Ferguson, loc. cit. p. 34.

^{page 142 note 6} Jones v. Randall, Lofft 383, 385 (1774), quoted in ibid. p. 34.

^{page 142 note 7} Dr Bonham's Case, 8 Coke Rep. 114a (1610).

^{page 142 note 8} Bentham, Jeremy, A Comment upon the Commentaries, edited by Everett, C. W. (Oxford, 1928), pp. 190–1.Google Scholar

^{page 143 note 1} Quoted in Ilbert, C., Legislative Methods and Forms (Oxford, 1901), p. 46.Google Scholar

^{page 143 note 2} Ibid. p. 47.

^{page 143 note 3} Ibid. p. 56.

^{page 144 note 1} The Renton Report, op. cit.

^{page 144 note 2} Ilbert, op. cit., p 58.

^{page 144 note 3} Kean, A., ‘Drafting a Bill in Britain’, in Harvard Journal on Legislation (Cambridge, Mass.), 5, 1968, p. 253.Google Scholar

^{page 144 note 4} Dale, op. cit. p. 115.

^{page 145 note 1} Thring, op. cit. pp. 4–5.

^{page 145 note 2} A useful bibliography appears in Dickerson, R., Legislative Drafting (Boston, 1954), p. 125.Google Scholar

^{page 145 note 3} Thring, op. cit. p. 60.

^{page 145 note 4} Ibid.

^{page 145 note 5} Ibid. p. 9.

^{page 145 note 6} Bennion, F. A. R., Constitutional Law of Ghana (London, 1962), p. 111.Google Scholar

^{page 146 note 1} Cundy v. Lecocq (1884) 13 Q.B.D. 207, ‘ …we have had quoted the maxim that in every criminal offence there must be a guilty mind; but I do not think that maxim has so wide an application as it is sometimes considered to have. In old times, and as applicable to the common law or to earlier statutes, the maxim may have been of general application; but a difference has arisen owing to the greater precision of modern statutes.’

^{page 146 note 2} Thring, op. cit. pp. 5–6.

^{page 146 note 3} Ibid. p. 22.

^{page 147 note 1} See, generally, Trubek, D. M., ‘Max Weber and the Rise of Capitalism’, in Wisconsin Law Review (Madison), 1972, p. 720.Google Scholar

^{page 147 note 2} Ibid.

^{page 147 note 3} See Seidman, R. B., The State, Law and Development (London, 1978), ch. 5.Google Scholar

^{page 147 note 4} Weber, op. cit. p. 221.

^{page 148 note 1} Dale, op. cit.

^{page 148 note 2} National Insurance Act, 1946, Part II, Schedule I, quoted in the Renton Report, p. 27.

^{page 148 note 3} Quoted in Allen, C. K., Law in the Making (London, 1958 edn.), p. 539.Google Scholar

^{page 149 note 1} Thring, op. cit. p. 6.

^{page 149 note 2} Dickerson, R., ‘Legal Drafting’, in Journal of Legal Education (Lexington), 29, 1978, p. 373.Google Scholar

^{page 149 note 3} See Seidman, R. B., ‘Law and Development: the interface between policy and implementation’, in The Journal of Modern African Studies (Cambridge), XII, 4, 12 1975, pp. 641–52.CrossRef Google Scholar

^{page 150 note 1} Ilbert, op. cit. ch. IX.

^{page 150 note 2} Northern Rhodesia, Pools Ordinance, 1960, Cap. 51.

^{page 150 note 3} Attorney-General of Kenya v. M. R. Shah, [1959] E.A. pp. 375 and 377.

^{page 151 note 1} Seidman, op. cit. ch. 2.

^{page 151 note 2} Lugard, Lord, The Dual Mandate in British Tropical Africa (London, 1965 edn.), p. 538.Google Scholar

^{page 151 note 3} Seidman, op. cit. ch. 13.

^{page 152 note 1} Seidman, op. cit. ch. 12.

^{page 152 note 2} For example: Zambia, Penal Code, Cap. 146, SectiOn 305(e).

^{page 153 note 1} Seidman, op. cit. passim.

^{page 154 note 1} Green, Reginald H., ‘Law, Laws and Public Enterprise Planning in Africa’, in Ghai, Yash (ed.), Law in the Political Economy of Public Enterprise (Uppsala, 1977), p. 50.Google Scholar

^{page 154 note 2} Namasivaya, S., The Drafting of Legislation (Accra, 1967), p. 98Google Scholar; and SirRam, Granville, ‘The Improvement of the Statute Book’, in Journal of Society of Public Teachers of Law (London), 1, 1947–1951, pp. 443–4.Google Scholar

^{page 154 note 3} Namasivaya, op. cit. p. 106.

^{page 155 note 1} Renton Report, p. 10.

^{page 155 note 2} E.g. King, J., Parliamentary Drafting (London, Commonwealth Secretariat, n.d.), introduction.Google Scholar

^{page 155 note 3} ‘Tanzania. Notes on Parliamentary Drafting’, Attorney-General's Chambers, Dares Salaam, mimeographed, n.d.

^{page 155 note 4} King, op. cit. p. 18.

^{page 155 note 5} Ibid. p. 23.

^{page 155 note 6} Tanzania, op. cit, p. 19.

^{page 155 note 7} Ibid. p. 9.

^{page 155 note 8} Ibid. pp. 20–1.

^{page 155 note 9} King, op. cit. p. 7.

^{page 155 note 10} Ibid. p. 20

^{page 155 note 11} Tanzania, op. cit. p. 83.

^{page 155 note 12} Ibid.

^{page 156 note 1} Zambia, Cabinet Circular No. 72 of 1969.

^{page 157 note 1} King, op. cit. introduction.

^{page 157 note 2} Dale, op. cit. p. viii.

^{page 157 note 3} Gatheru, P. M., ‘The Role and Functions of a Parliamentary Draftsman’, Conference on Law and Development, Nairobi, 06 1974.Google Scholar

^{page 158 note 1} Regents, University of Blake, California v., in United States Law Week (Washington, D.C.), 46, 1978, p. 4896.Google Scholar

^{page 159 note 1} Davis, K. C., Discretionary Justice (Baton Rouge, 1969).Google Scholar

^{page 159 note 2} Quoted in Dale, op. cit. p. 1.

^{page 159 note 3} Renton Report, p. 1.

^{page 159 note 4} Dale, op. cit. p. vii.

^{page 160 note 1} Ibid. p. 332.

^{page 160 note 2} For example, Massachusetts 1977 Session Laws., ch. 801.

^{page 160 note 3} Seidman, op. cit. ch. 22.

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