It is no longer true that information about legislative drafting is passed down solely by word of mouth inside legislative drafting offices. Unfortunately most law schools have not caught up with this, and continue to value case-law above legislation. This selection is not meant to be comprehensive and is just to demonstrate that there is plenty out there for anyone who wants to look.
Practitioner hand-books
- Thornton’s Legislative Drafting, by Helen Xanthaki
- Legislative Drafting Step-by-Step, by Arthur Rynearson
- Principles of Legislative and Regulatory Drafting, by Ian McLeod
- International Legislative Drafting Guidebook, Tulane Uni
- Legislative drafter’s deskbook, by Tobias Dorsey
- Legislative Drafting Vols I & II, by V. C. R. A. C. Crabbe
Official drafting manuals
- Commonwealth Legislative Drafting Manual by Roger Rose
- Commonwealth Association of Legislative Counsel gathers the published legislative drafting manuals from many of the Commonwealth countries (including 3 Australian states as well as national, & 2 of the 3 UK devolved parliaments as well as national), the EU and USA (federal plus 31 states).
- International Association of Legislation has a set of links to other drafting manuals from European & other countries
- Individual drafting offices usually publish their own drafting manuals as well.
Journals
- “The Loophole” journal of the Commonwealth Association of Legislative Counsel (catalogued along with CALC’s newsletter – CALC also offers member-only access to its conference papers)
- International Journal of Legislative Drafting and Law Reform
- Legisprudence
- Statute Law Review
Academic books
- Drafting Legislation: Art and Technology of Rules for Regulation, by Helen Xanthaki
- Designing Effective Legislation, by Maria Mousmouti
- Drafting Legislation: A Modern Approach, eds Constantin Stefanou & Helen Xanthaki
- Legisprudence: Practical Reason in Legislation, by Luc Wintgens
University courses
- Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, University of London
- Athabasca University (in cooperation with Commonwealth, available online)
- University of the West Indies on more than one campus
- Several more at CALC’s training page
Those are all postgraduate professional courses. Undergraduate courses about legislative drafting (as opposed to courses on the case-law of statutory interpretation) are sadly rare – one exception, taught with input from Scotland’s Parliamentary Counsel Office is at Uni of Edinburgh (by Scott Wortley)
Historic books
- Legislative Drafting, Driedger
- The Composition of Legislation, Driedger
- Legislative Methods and Forms, Ilbert
- Thring’s Practical Legislation, reprint by MacKenzie & Purdie
Drafting the law 