POLICY MAKING

AND

LEGISLATIVE DRAFTING STAGES

© 2019 MAJURA Ibrahim W

LL.B (Hons) University of Dodoma (Tz)

LL.M (candidate) University of South Wales (UK)

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1.0 Legislation

Legislation refers to actual law enacted by legislative body at the national, state or local level. 1 In
democratic state the legislative power is vested to separate organ in most cases the organ which
believed to represent the voice of the whole society. In most jurisdiction the legislative function is
vested to the legislative Assembly. The parliament is believed to be representative of the whole
society.

The purpose to vest the legislative power to the organ with representatives from the whole society
intends to make sure that the legislations which are made is the consent from the people themselves
and the legislations have blessings and approval from the whole society.

Every society has legislations to control the particular society in various matters and its daily
activities. The styles of legislation in society include the principal and subsidiary or delegated
legislations. The different between the two is that, the Principal legislations are those legislations
which are enacted by the organ vested power in the society to legislate while subsidiary or
delegated legislations are those legislations which are enacted by other body not primarily have
power to legislate but they legislate when the powers to legislate is delegated by the particular
body vested power to legislate. For example in Tanzania, the legislative power is vested to the
Parliament2 but the Parliament can delegate power to various Executive bodies and local
authorities to legislate on various matters.

There are various reasons for which the body solely vested power to legislate can confer power to
another body. Among of the reasons include, time pressure, technicalities and flexibility to
mention the few.

Primary purpose of legislations in the society is to control human conducts in a particular society.
The legislations serves many purposes and functions in the society. Four principal purposes and
functions are, establishing standards, maintaining order, resolving disputes and protecting liberties
and rights.3

1
https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/legislation accessed on 7/04/2019.
2
See Article 4 and 64 of The Constitution of United Republic of Tanzania, 1977 as amended.
3
Businesslawbasics.com, accessed on 7/04/2019.

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2.0. Legislative Drafting Stages and Policy Making

Legislations being the principles and rules in which any society are governed is not one night task
but it is process. In Tanzania for the law become a law must pass through various stages.

Legislation to become law and enforceable it passes through various stages. The stages may
include, policy making stage, Bill stage, Preliminary debate, Committee stage, Parliamentary
debate and approval, Consent by the President and Publication.

Policy making stage, in Tanzania policy are made by the Executive army of government. Public
policy refers to actions are taken by the government. Its decision are intended to solve problems
and improve the quality of life for the citizens. A policy established and carried out by the
government goes through several stages from inception to conclusion. These are agenda building,
formulation, adoption, implementation, evaluation and termination. 4 The policy is not binding and
enforceable. For it to be enforceable it is necessary to enact the law that enforces the particular
policy. For example to implement the land policy of 1994, The Land Act, 1999 and The Village
Land Act, 1999 were enacted.

Bill drafting stage, after the establishment of the policy by the government, then after the
Executive will draft the bill and the objectives of the said policy will be presented to the
parliamentary draftsmen who will draft the bill.

Preliminary debate, the drafted bill will be presented to the general public and call for public
opinion on the bill. This can be made by collecting views from the general public by conducting
public debate and conducting seminars with various stakeholders.

Committee stage, in this stage the bill is presented to Parliamentary legal affairs committee and
the committee will scrutinize the bill and sort the opinion from the public and present the
committee and public opinion to the National Assembly.

4
https://www.cliffnotes.com/studyguide accessed on 7/4/2019.

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Parliamentary debate and approval, at this stage the bill will be tabled to the Parliament for
debate by all members of parliament and make some amendment and ultimately draft the final
draft which will be presented to the President for assenting and signature.

Consent by the President and Publication, at this stage The President is required to assent and
sign the said Bill in order to be a law. The President having signed the said law now it cannot come
into operation until it is published. This is the principle of law that, the law must be published. The
Minister will then publish the said law on the government gazette and state the date in which the
law will come into operation.

Generally speaking, policy and legislations are two sides of the same coin and they are interrelated.
The policy need the law for its implementation and the legislation originate from the particular
policy.

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