Expertise in legislative drafting

Approximately 700 public officials work in legislative drafting tasks at the ministries. In order to improve the quality of legislative drafting, the legislative drafting skills of the public officials of the ministries are deepened and expanded in various ways.

Behind the measures for the development of legislative drafting skills is the Project for Effective Legislative Drafting, carried out by the Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra and the Ministry of Justice. The final report of the project was published in February 2013. The outcomes of the project are the competence map for the legislative drafting process as well as proposals for the training programme and for the use of other measures to improve the expertise in the field. 

Competence map for the legislative drafting process

The competence map for the legislative drafting process can be used for determining, evaluating and developing the law drafting skills of the public officials, for example as a part of career development discussions. It can also be used to develop the entire organisation's legislative drafting skills.

The competence map describes the skills required from the experts and assisting personnel participating in the legislative drafting process within the Government as well as from the senior public officials responsible for the overall coordination of the legislative drafting work.

The key fields of expertise required in legislative drafting are

  • legal expertise
  • content knowledge
  • management of the legislative drafting process
  • communicational and cooperative skills
  • technical knowledge in the field of legislative drafting
  • overall coordination of legislative drafting work.

Competence map for the legislative drafting process (in Finnish): Lainvalmisteluprosessin osaamiskartta

Training programme for legislative drafters

The purpose of the training programme for legislative drafters is to expand and deepen the skills of experts working in law drafting tasks as well as to harmonise the law drafting practices and procedures within the Government. In addition, the training programme provides the participants with an opportunity to network and exchange experiences with other experts in the field.