Legislative Assessments

The ILRC facilitates thorough, analytical reviews of domestic legislation that is either in force in developing countries or is in draft form and about to be adopted by relevant government bodies. The ILRC’s experts can be instrumental to the legislative drafting process in any country as they provide pro bono advice to UNDP, other multinational clients, and their local partners on almost any type of law or regulation addressing virtually any substantive legal matter. In the past, ILRC experts have commented on laws as varied as the Mongolian Communications Law, the Vietnamese Health Law addressing HIV/AIDS, and the Bhutanese Contract Law.

Experts who volunteer their time and provide commentary for each legislative assessment are selected from a pool of over 1,600 international professionals who are highly trained in the fields of law and development. As a result, the input provided to UNDP and other clients is diverse and top quality. Selected experts work from their home country and the ILRC staff coordinates all their commentary into a final report. It usually takes about six weeks to undertake such a review.

The option of utilizing the ILRC to analyze legislation is cost effective and very convenient. Currently, UNDP and other multinational clients do not incur costs on a per project basis and little or no travel in-country is involved when undertaking a legislative assessment with the ILRC. All of the commentary from ILRC experts is collected and submitted to the client electronically and the ILRC does not charge for administering each assessment. Furthermore, ILRC expert commentators travel in-country solely at the request of the client. If the client’s budget permits, such trips may be pertinent in order to explain the commentary provided and facilitate legislative drafting workshops with NGOs and government officials thus building local capacity.

Legislative Assessment Process:

1. The ILRC receives the law or regulation to be reviewed.
2. The ILRC circulates the law or regulation to a pre-selected group of experts.
3. The ILRC receives each of the experts’ comments.
4. The ILRC compiles all the comments into a single, comprehensive report.
5. The UNDP country office or other multinational requesting the legislative assessment receives the report and distributes it to its local partners.
6. Optional: One or several of the expert commentators may travel in-country in order to expand on the report and build local capacity through legislative drafting workshops. Travel is subject to approval by UNDP or other multinational client who will be responsible for covering travel related costs.

To learn more about the ILRC’s legislative assessment capabilities please contact Jacqueline Gichinga, the ILRC Project Coordinator, at Jacqueline.Gichinga@americanbar.org.