Legislative drafting: An introduction 2025

Acquire the basic knowledge and skills necessary to draft legislation efficiently, accurately and in compliance with legal requirements.

This course will give persons in the public sector who are involved in the drafting of legislation (including delegated legislation) the basic theoretical and practical knowledge and skills in respect of the drafting of legislative measures.

We are proud to announce the launch of the book Introduction to Legislative Drafting by our presenters Rassie Malherbe, Anton Meyer and Heinrich Muller - now available from Juta in hard copy and as an ebook.
Please note that this book will be used as the prescribed course material for UCT Law@work’s legislative drafting courses. Delegates are to purchase the book via this link before the course commences.

Join us for an eighteen-hour course, held over six days.

When and where?

Monday 7 to Wednesday 9 April and Monday 14 to Wednesday 16 April 2025

All days: 8:30 to 12:30 SAST

This course will be held remotely, most likely on Zoom

Who will benefit from this course?

The programme is primarily aimed at officials in the national, provincial and local spheres of government and officials in parastatal bodies.

Presenters

Prof Rassie Malherbe is a retired professor of constitutional law from the University of Johannesburg. He has been teaching legislative drafting for 20 years, for the last three years at the University of Cape Town. During his academic career Prof Malherbe focused his research on constitutional law, education law, and specific human rights such as academic freedom, freedom of religion and education rights. He co-authored several textbooks and published more than 100 articles on these topics. He was closely involved in the constitution-making process of the nineties, and still advises government institutions on legislative and other issues.

Adv Anton Meyer SC had a long career in legislative drafting spanning over 40 years. He was a state law adviser in the Department of Justice for many years, and was the deputy chief state law adviser until he became the chief law adviser to parliament when the interim constitution came into effect in 1994. He served in this position until his retirement in 2002. He has been the co-presenter with Prof Malherbe of an extra-curricular program in legislative drafting at the University of Johannesburg since its inception in 2002. This programme was moved to the University of Cape Town three years ago.

Heinrich Muller is a qualified and experienced attorney of the High Court of South Africa and an environmental law specialist. Currently, he serves in the law reform unit at the national Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, in which capacity he has been the principal drafter of several key pieces of legislation. He has a vast amount of practical experience in the drafting of various forms of legislative instruments and managing their progress to final adoption, based on the ability to transform government policies into technically accurate and workable legislation. He is also a member of the Commonwealth Association of Legislative Counsel.

How much?

R9,450 per person.

Please make sure that you have your own copy of the prescribed course textbook before the start of the course.

Certificate

A certificate of attendance from UCT will be issued to those who attend the full six sessions of the course.

SIGN UP HERE: Legislative drafting: An introduction | UCT Law at Work