Saturday, July 24, 2010

Pre Legislative Briefing Service

From 'Law and Other Things' about a new group PLBS: "Styling themselves as the Pre Legislative Briefing Service (PLBS), these young turks have begun engaging with the Indian law making process in a fairly intense way. They pick up drafts of recent bills that are before Parliament, study it extensively and come up with nuanced reports on the various legal/policy implications of the bill" in the post Alternative Thinking Outside the "Law Firm" Box?. Aims:
"The Pre-Legislative Briefing Service (PLBS)

i) To provide rigorous, independent and non-partisan legal and policy analysis of Bills introduced in Parliament

ii) To suggest appropriate legal reform to enable bills to pass tests of constitutionality if challenged

iii) To suggest appropriate policy reform if the legislative policy is to be sound in principle and efficacious in practice."
They have done a study of the Nuclear Liability bill and the report is posted in SSRN document
A Briefing Document on the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill, 2010: Questions of Constitutionality and Legislative Options Open to Parliament .
Abstract:
The Civil Liability for Nuclear Damages Bill, 2010 (hereinafter “the Bill”) introduced in the Lok Sabha, Parliament of India, on 7th May, 2010 is a complex piece of parliamentary legislation. While there has been a vibrant public debate surrounding a few aspects of this Bill, in this Report we seek to provide a more comprehensive and reasoned legal analysis of this Bill and its implications. The touchstone on which we seek to test this Bill is the Constitution of India. Our conclusions, the reasons supporting which are provided in this report, indicate a range of further actions the government could take. Some provisions are salutary and require little in the way of amendment, others may be struck down for being contrary to the constitutional provisions as interpreted by the Supreme Court and require modification. Yet others, albeit not unconstitutional, are deeply problematic given the ambiguity of the draft text and necessitate clarification.

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