Plain English for Drafting Statutes and Rules

Take advantage of the authors' combined 75 years of experience drafting constitutional Provisions, federal and state statues, administrative and court rules, and local laws, as well as Professor Martineau's 30 years spent developing courses in legislative drafting and teaching Plain English drafting to law students and professional drafters.

Critical coverage for drafters and students, seasoned professionals and beginners alike, this practical lawyering skills book is replete with coverage of:

• Principles and rules governing sentence structure
• A full description of the legislative and rule making process, statutory interpretation, and the formal requirements for both statutes and rules at the federal, state, and local levels
• All aspects of the drafting process from original idea to enactment or adoption
• Guides for tabulation, definitions, and other aspects of statutory and rule drafting
• Chapters on rules governing the structure of a bill or regulation

While initially designed for course use, Plain English for Drafting Statues and Rules will prove invaluable to anyone involved in this area, including:

• Any person, lawyer or non-lawyer, with responsibility for drafting a law (constitutional provision, federal or state statute, or local government charter or ordinance, or a rule.
• Legal professionals with the aforementioned responsibility who work in private practice.
• Attorneys who work for a government body that enacts legislation or adopts rules, including legislative drafting agencies and municipal attorneys.

The Teacher's Manual for Plain English for Drafting Statutes and Rules contains a series of poor drafting examples of each type of drafting error to be given to students to improve. The Manual then contains the authors' approach to improving each example.