Awareness
The Dutch Minister of Justice, mr Hirsh Ballin, emphasised the importance of exchanging knowledge. Increasing interaction between the legal systems of EU Member States and the traditional differences between national legal systems: for Minister of Justice mr Hirsh Ballin those factors make the European Academy for Law and Legislation (EALL) necessary. The minister identified not so much a difference in opinion about the substance of legislation as in the respective approaches taken by the various legal systems: ‘We should strive to be aware of diverging elements in our legal systems, so that today’s legal technicalities of minor interest will not prove to be the cause for tomorrow’s political stalemate.’            

Beneficial
The minister therefore urged members of the international community taking part in the conference to develop a greater sensitivity to these less visible differences between legal systems. ‘We must improve our knowledge of the European and international legal playing field of which our national legal orders are a part.’ The minister’s expectation is that government authorities and parliamentary draftsmen will benefit from the EALL’s knowledge and experience.

Styles of Legislation
During the two-day ‘Styles of Legislation’ conference, diplomats, international top officials, preeminent lawyers and academics of international knowledge institutes will exchange ideas about different traditions and styles of national legislation. In addition, conference participants will focus on the diversity of national styles and on how this diversity influences the drafting and introduction of European legislation.

Language
Mr Bevis Clarke-Smith, a director at the European Commission’s Legal Service, observed that ‘perhaps the key challenge facing European legislation is not legislative substance as such but, rather, the different languages of the European Union. How do we deal with all culturally determined differences in linguistic nuance? Further expansion of the European Union will only increase this challenge. A possible solution in this regard would be a multilingual environment in which laws are drafted and prepared for introduction.’

Criteria for good legislation
Professor Ulrich Karpen of the University of Hamburg likewise raised a linguistic issue. His evaluation of all German legislation – that is, of federal legislation, legislation of the 16 states and local bye-laws – revealed that only six of the 565 German Acts and laws met the criterion of comprehensible language. In addition, he evaluated the Acts and laws in terms of, among other things, necessity, proportionality, sustainability, consistency and the degree to which they could be explained for the actor. The evaluation revealed that a considerable part of delegated legislation is not strictly necessary. According to Professor Karpen, however, ‘there is hope. This knowledge will lead irrevocably to better legislation. The EALL will make an important contribution in this regard.’

Covering lacunae
Mr Sam Muller of The Hague Institute for the Internationalisation of Law (HiiL) also recognises an important role for the EALL. An increasingly globalising world requires regulation that transcends national borders. Three systems must cover the current lacunae, namely improved coherence between national legislations, a modest use of international treaties and public-private agreements. But how does one coordinate this trinity to ensure that it is a properly interacting whole? This question is as yet hardly raised in regular law training programmes. The EALL, however, is eminently suited to accommodate and address it.

Second day
On the second day the Dutch ambassador to the European Union, Tom de Bruijn, was interviewed live at the conference by Radio Netherlands Worldwide. He addressed legislative procedures of the European Union. The conference was concluded by Professor Wim Voermans, dean of the EALL and Professor of Constitutional and Administrative Law at Leiden University. These concluding remarks will also be the subject of a publication written by all speakers of the conference.