Council of Ministers Approves Rules to Enhance Quality in Legal Texts
The Council of Ministers on Wednesday, May 22, 2019, approved a Resolution presented by the Minister for Legislative Reform and Parliamentary Affairs (MRLAP) Fidelis Magalhães on new rules for legislation drafting by the government, from now on.
The rules apply to all ministries and encompass new standard for government legislative procedures. The purpose is to enhance accuracy on the preparatory research and the justification for new decrees and bylaws from the Council of Ministers. It will also apply to proposals of new Acts from the Council of Ministers to the National Parliament, thus aiming at ensuring higher quality legal diplomas overall.
Under the new rules, before entering the legislative process proposals for new legislation will have to elaborate on the justification for the need of a new diploma and the expected impact on society and the state budget once new decrees or bylaws are approved.
The government hopes that the new requirements will contribute for new legislative initiatives be accompanied by a brief study indicating the national problem that the law seeks to resolve and the reasons why the government considers a bill to be the best solution to the problem.
The objective of the Ministry of Legislative Reform and Parliamentary Affairs and the Council of Ministers is to promote a better legal system and avoid copying existing legislation from other countries, which often are not adjusted to the solution of our own problems.
"The resolution which has been approved is a detailed technical instrument to be used by the legal advisers and the administration, but the ultimate goal of MRLAP and of the government is to enhance the quality of legal diplomas and make them more adjusted to the citizens’ needs and, therefore, to the reality of our country," said Minister Fidelis Magalhães.
The resolution adopted by the Council of Ministers with the new rules contains 45 articles and four annexes. The annexes include rules on the evaluation of the impact of new legislation, the articulation of any proposals with the program of the government, the indication of old legislation to be revoked, as well as detailed rules for the study of regulatory impact. In the case of the creation of fees, it also requires the presentation of an economic and financial justification for the fees to be created.
