LL.B. (Three Years) Skills of Legislative Drafting and Judgment Writing Syllabus - SPPU 2026

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Syllabus for Skills of Legislative Drafting and Judgment Writing

Semester 6 · Third Year · Skill enhancement course · 2 credits

Course aims

This course aims at providing a practical guidance of the principles and techniques of legislative drafting and judgment writing. It also aims to provide a thorough analysis of the nuances involved in drafting of a legislation and judgment writing. The course lays down a methodical study of the manner in which the drafter should proceed with the drafting. It further explores the pre-requisites which a draftsman needs to equip himself with. It highlights the problems and challenges faced by a draftsman in carrying out the task of drafting a legislation. Besides this the course is aimed at to insight the students the art and skill of the effective judgment writing.

Objectives

The main objective is to acquaint the students with analytical skills and knowledge to analyse the tools and techniques employed by the draftsman while drafting the legislation and judge while writing the judgment.

Outcomes

● Students will be acquainted with the thorough understanding about problems and challenges faced by a draftsman in carrying out the task of drafting a legislation.
● Students will get the insight of the art and skill of the effective judgment writing.

Module 01: The Basics of Legislative Drafting

1. Concept of legislative drafting
a) Historical development of legislative drafting
b) Theoretical foundations of this form of drafting
c) Principle characteristics of this form of drafting
d) Drafting objectives
e) Drafting and legislative Counsel
f) Legislative expression
g) Types of legislation d. Classification of primary legislation (Bills and Acts)
h) Structure and format Bills and Acts
i) Conventional structure of Bills and Acts Topic
2. Preparation of legislative scheme
a) Clear concept of the legislative proposals; Preparation of conceptual outline
b) Check the existing law c. Importance and preparation of skeleton legislation and legislative scheme
3. Basic Techniques of Legislative Drafting
a) Style
b) Simplicity of Language
c) Over Drafting
d) Vagueness

Module 02: Structure and style

1. Grammar and punctuation marks
a) Why is grammar important for drafting?
b) What grammatical terms do we need to know?
c) What common grammatical mistakes should we watch for?
d) How do we punctuate and capitalize
2. The components of legislative sentences
a) Principal subject
b) Principal predicate
c) Predicate modifiers
3. Main parts of legislation
4. Common phrases and their significance
5. The structure a legislative text
a) General considerations
b) Drafting sections
c) Drafting sentences in sections
d) Paragraphing
e) Numbering
f) Ordering and linking sentences in a section
g) Linking sections
h) Incorporation by reference
i) Grouping Section
6. Organise a legislative text
a) General considerations
b) Preparing an outline
c) Factors influencing an outline for a Bill Text
7. The parameters of good legislative style
a) General considerations
b) Developing good legislative style
c) Gender-neutral drafting
d) Some additional matters of style

Module 03: Working within limits

1. The interpretive approaches and rules
a) General considerations
b) Judicial approaches to interpretation
c) Interpretive assumptions and presumptions
d) Aids to interpretation
2. The role of Principles of Interpretation Acts
a) Importance of Interpretation Acts
b) Application of Interpretation Acts
c) Using Interpretation Acts to facilitate drafting

Module 04: Judgment

1. Meaning and definition of Judgement
2. Purpose of a Judgment
3. Element or Framework of a judgment
4. Structuring of Judgement - Civil Case and Criminal Case
5. Importance of reasoning
6. Syllogistic process, inferential process or intuitive process.
7. Basics feature of every good judgment

Module 05: The art of writing a judgment

1. Judicial Modesty & Moderation
2. Brevity in Judgment
3. psychological and technical aspects
4. Neutrality and impartiality
5. The content of the judgment
6. The care and caution while writing the judgment
7. The ideal writing of a judgment
8. Simplicity, clarity and non-repeatability for judgment writing
9. Individual style of judgment writing
10. Quantity is the enemy of quality
11. Language of Judgement
12. Writing judgments: before and during the hearing and after the hearing

Additional Readings

1. B.R. Atre, Legislative Drafting (Principles and Techniques), Universal Law Publishing- An Imprint of LexisNexis, 5th edn. (2017).
2. Arthur J. Rynearson, Legislative Drafting Step-by-Step, Carolina Academic Press (2013).
3. Nirmal Kanti, R. Cambray's Principles of Legislation and Legislative Drafting, (2017).
4. T. K. Viswanathan, Legislative Drafting: Shaping the Law for the New Millennium, Indian Law Institute, 2nd edn., (2007).
5. V.P. Sarathi, Interpretation of Statutes, Eastern Book Company, 4th edn., (2003).
6. Lectures on Constitutional Law and Legislative Drafting, Vol. I, Institute of Judicial Training and Research, Uttar Pradesh, (1989).
7. P.M. Bakshi, “The Discipline of Legislative Drafting”, Vol. 34, No.1, JILI, p. 1 (1992).
8. O.P. Motiwal, “The Principles of Legislative Drafting”, Vol.16, No.1, JILI, p. 11 (1974). 3
9. P.M. Bakshi, “Proviso in Legislative Drafting”, Vol. 34, No. 2, JILI, p. 179 (1992).
10. S. K. Hiranandani, “Legislative Drafting: An Indian View”, Vol. 27, No.1, The Modern Law Review, p. 1 (1964).
11. Namrata Mukherjee, Shankar Narayanan, et al., “Manual on Plain Language Drafting”, Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, (2017).
12. Law Commission of India, 60th Report (1974) and 183rd Report (2002) on General Clauses Act, 1897 Important Cases
1. State bank of India v. Ajay Sood (2022)
2. Shakuntala Shukla v. State of Uttar Pradesh (2021) SCC OnLine SC 672

Any other information

1. The topics, cases and suggested readings given above are not exhaustive.
2. Teachers of the Course shall be at liberty to add the case/suggested readings.
3. Students are required to study/refer to the legislations as amended from time to time, and consult the latest editions of books on this course.

Reproduced from the Savitribai Phule Pune University Revised CBCS Rule and Syllabus for LL.B., the 2023 pattern as amended on 18 July 2024. Wording is as printed in that syllabus. Module numbering is as printed there too.

The complete syllabus

Every subject above is cut from the revised syllabus. Open the document here if you want the whole thing rather than a single subject.

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