Hello…

and welcome to The Law Drafter, where you can read my musings on law related things and see me work through the stages of theoretical policy development and legislative drafting.

Yes, but who are you and why should I care what you think?

I am a qualified lawyer (solicitor, England and Wales) and have a doctorate in legal practice. I have expertise in public and administrative law, in particular in relation to law enforcement powers, legislation and statutory interpretation. I also have (though not really relevant to this) a bit of experience of crisis management. I have acted as an expert consultant to the Law Commission of England and Wales.

My doctorate focussed on powers of entry and associated powers (for example search, seizure, undertaking works etc.) and whether such a complicated landscape was compliant with the rule of law.

My thesis involved developing a framework of principles to set out what I meant by “the rule of law” (it is, oddly, still a contested issued) and then drafting an “Act of Parliament” (a theoretical one, obviously). The draft legislation was used to test if it was possible to reform powers of entry in a way which would make them more rule of law compliant.

My thesis is the cause of the brain worm that now haunts me and which has resulted in me setting up this substack.

Of course, none of that means you should care what I think but I hope it gives you a bit more confidence that the things I post aren’t completely inane ramblings!

What is this all about?

Good question. Well…

I have a bit of an uncontrollable brain worm where things I see in the news or debated on legal twitter stick in my brain and I spend lots of time (more time than healthy, really) thinking about them and whether or not they are something that might, at least in theory, benefit from legal reform in some way or another.

I have decided to try and do something with the brain worm and start to write these things down, from idea through to draft “legislation”.

Why though?

A couple of reasons.

First, I’m beginning to think there isn’t another way to stop these things bouncing around my head. Hopefully by writing it down it will mean the brain worm keeps moving along to new topics so at least I don’t get bored of the same thing on loop.

Second, it might help people more generally. I find it is quite hard, especially for lawyers, to debate completely abstract concepts so at least by writing down outline concepts, detail, and then legislation there would be something for people to frame their debate around.

So how will it work?

Still here!? Thanks for ploughing through this far!

The plan is to break things up along roughly the same process as the consultation/legislation one.

So I will follow this process:

Green paper

This will be the first high-level musings setting out what I think the issues are and what the potential solutions might look like.

White paper

This will set out the more detailed thinking of how changes might work. It will be some time after a green paper so that the brain worm can do its thing. Also so I can factor in any comments anyone makes.

Some of my ideas will end here, as I will have come to the conclusion it isn’t worth me drafting “legislation” either because I think it won’t work or because I’m just not interested in the area enough after all to waste my time and yours.

Legislation

This will be detailed legal drafting of a straw man to see what changes could be made and how they might work in practice.

Brown paper

I am also going to do some posts or discussion threads or things which don’t necessarily fit into the “policy development” type thinking process. They might be off the cuff “intial thoughts”, a “call for evidence”, a bit of analysis etc.

Basically, they will be a mixed bag (which is why “brown paper”). Some of them might then spark an idea for me to go through the “policy development” cycle but most are unlikely to.

Will updates be frequent/regular?

As frequent/regular as I can make them whilst giving me time to do the detailed research, thinking and drafting. I am aiming to post something at least once a fortnight with more frequent posts as often as it makes sense to.

Boring but necessary disclaimer

Nothing on this susbtack constitutes legal opinion or advice and should not be taken as such.

Copyright is reserved. If you want to copy anything on this substack please contact me at thelawdrafter@substack.com.