Legislative Drafting

Catalog description

The Legislative Drafting Workshop will provide law students with an introduction to legislative drafting with a specific focus on the unintended consequences that can result from well-meaning legislation. Students will learn the basics of how to draft a law for enactment in the state of Illinois. We will analyze several statutes to identify common problems, and other well-known unforeseen issues. There are several types of unintended consequences, and students will learn how to identify and prevent them. The course will consist of several in-class assignments where students will be given proposed legislation and they will identify many possible unintended consequences of the law and they will then correct them either by rewriting the law or drafting an amendment. The course will be taught by legal professionals with extensive experience in legislative drafting and litigation. The students will gain practical skills by learning from two practicing litigators who experience the effects of unintended consequences every day.