Legislative Drafting in France: The Better Regulation (BR) Approach

The quality of the law has always been a prime concern to French regulators.The last ten years have seen a flurry of reforms, including a constitutional amendment to introduce RIA and six simplification laws.This article, drafted by a practitioner, attempts to identify what is specific about the French approach, and to appraise the model and its results against international best practice as expressed by the "Better Regulation" principles.It will do so by first looking at the policy discussion, then taking a "hands-on" viewpoint, including personal experience.It concludes that much progress has been made but further improvements are necessary if the system is to guarantee economic accountability on a par with legal security, and remain an "attractive" model.As of May 2012, after ten years of centre right rule, elections have returned a president supported by a different majority: over the two parliamentary terms, conditions were met for sustained administrative reform, with a consistent and rich regulatory agenda, including a constitutional amendment to introduce regulatory impact assessment (RIA) and six simplification laws.After such wide-scale changes, can the issue of quality of legislation be considered solved, and is the ensuing architecture and production on a par with international best practice?Are there any lessons to be learnt for other countries?Is the "French legal model" even more attractive than before?This article will address legislative drafting in the context of its contribution to policy-making and delivery, which is central to the Better Regulation (BR) approach.It will attempt to summarize what is specific about the French approach, starting with a review of official reports published (in French only.)The objective is to determine to what extent the model meets international standards, as defined chiefly by the OECD in its regulatory governance recommendations revised in 2012 181 .The article will also capitalise on some 30 years of personal experience of drafting legal texts in four French Ministries.The starting point is my personal impression that the tradition of excellent drafting skills, which leads to a search for 180 Senior Regulatory Adviser, Ministry of Finance, Paris, France.