The cradle of laws: drafting and negotiating bills within the executives in central Europe

In fast allen Staaten sind Gesetze die wichtigsten Instrumente, um soziale, wirtschaftliche oder institutionelle Veränderungen herbeizuführen. Traditionell werden zwar die Parlamente als der Ort der Gesetzgebung betrachtet, doch es ist oft die Exekutive, die die Ergebnisse des legislativen Spiels stärker beeinflusst. Statistische Daten zeigen, dass die von der Regierung eingebrachten Gesetzentwürfe in den meisten Fällen unverändert verabschiedet werden. Das Werk untersucht im Detail, wie Gesetzesvorlagen innerhalb der Exekutive vorbereitet werden. Für diese genaue Analyse wurden sechs mitteleuropäische Länder ausgewählt (Österreich, Tschechische Republik, Deutschland, Ungarn, Polen, Slowakei).

Cover -- Introduction: The role of governments in drafting and negotiating bills -- Modern trends in drafting and negotiating bills -- Models for drafting legislation -- Centralised v decentralised drafting -- Prioritising Legislation -- Quality and harmonisation of legislative expression -- Professionalism in drafting -- Drafting and policy-making -- Main legislative actors -- Cross-cutting issues -- Conclusions: What is best? -- Austria -- Introduction -- The Austrian political system and its effect on governments' legislative freedom -- The negligible role of the Austrian president -- The informal powers of the Austrian Länder -- Austria's consociationalist and neo-corporatist tradition -- The shadow of the Constitutional Court -- The legal framework for preparing governmental bills -- The drafting and negotiating of governmental bills in practice -- Administration-government relations -- Intra-governmental coordination -- The fate of governmental bills -- Conclusion -- The Czech Republic -- Introduction -- Overview of the constitutional and political system -- Legal and institutional framework of the law-making process -- Role of the government in preparatory phase of legislative process -- Initiation stage -- Drafting and negotiating stage -- Governmental bills in the parliamentary phase -- Conclusion -- Germany -- Introduction -- Overview of the German constitutional and political system -- The basic framework of the legislative process -- The practice of drafting and negotiating governmental bills in Germany -- The fate of governmental bills in the parliament -- Conclusion -- Hungary -- Introduction -- Overview of the constitutional and political system -- Legal and institutional framework for the preparation of legislation -- Sources of law and their role in the legal system -- Legal sources on legislative drafting.