Legislation

One of the tasks of the Law Officers of the Crown is to draft legislation for:

• the States of Guernsey,

• the States of Alderney,

• the Chief Pleas of Sark, and

• other public bodies such as the Guernsey Financial Services Commission ("GFSC") and the Data Protection Commissioner ("DPC").

This role is primarily carried out on behalf of the Law Officers by lawyers working in the Law Officers' Chambers called "Legislative Counsel", many of whom are also Advocates of the Royal Court.

The principal types of legislation drafted by Legislative Counsel are:

a) Laws, which generally deal with the most important issues such as crime, taxation, housing control and financial services;

b) Ordinances, which might provide further detail for an area already dealt with by Law or might concern a stand-alone area such as fishing (in accordance with the customary law), and

c) Subordinate legislation, which will generally provide practical or procedural detail in relation to a Law or Ordinance.

The different types of legislation follow different routes before they can come into effect. For further details on these, please click  here [85kb]

In addition, the drafting process must also take into account where the legislation will apply i.e to a particular island within the Bailiwick, a combination of islands or the Bailiwick of Guernsey as a whole.

All of the Bailiwick's legislation can be found on the Guernsey Legal Resources website - http://www.guernseylegalresources.gg 

For further information on the legislative drafting process in Guernsey please click  here [234kb]

For the latest monthly digest of legislation please visit Monthly Legislation Digests