Good lawmaking is a constitutional objective linked to the rule of law. In order to ensure the purpose of good lawmaking, provisions of the Constitution (Article 74), the Rules of Procedure of the Parliament (Articles 85, 87, 88 and 101) and Law 4622/2019 (Articles 57-64) regulate issues relating to the legislative process and set certain rules to be followed when drafting, filing and voting on a bill or an amendment. Based on these general rules and Article 59(5) of Law No. 4622/2019, the Manual of Legislative Methodology was drafted in 2020, which analyses and specifies the rules to be followed in the legislative process. As stated in the aforementioned Manual (see, inter alia, pp. 18-19), the title of a bill (and subsequently of a law) is particularly important for the accessibility of the law and must succinctly convey the full scope of the legislation so that the addressees can immediately understand whether and to what extent the bill concerns them. At the same time, references to “other provisions”, which is common practice when the bill contains provisions unrelated to its main regulatory subject matter, should be avoided because it creates ambiguity and is therefore contrary to the principles of efficiency and accessibility as principles of good lawmaking.
According to Vouliwatch research, 88 pieces of legislation were passed within the year 2024 (Law 5080/2024 to 5167/2024). Of these pieces of legislation: i) 24 were of the type ‘International Convention’ (i.e. concerning the ratification of international conventions/agreements/memoranda of understanding/protocols) and ii) 64 were of the type ‘Law’.
Studying in detail 48 of the above laws (see the methodology here), it was observed that:
Thirty-seven (37) laws contained in their titles phrases such as “and other provisions”, “and other urgent provisions/regulations…”, “other provisions/regulations of the Ministry…”, “other urgent provisions under the responsibility of….”, “regulations under the responsibility of the Ministry…”, without any further clarification on the subject/issue regulated by these provisions. It should be noted at this point that even in the cases of laws whose titles did not contain any of these phrases, it seems that very often (namely in 9 of these 11 laws) there is a part/chapter with a corresponding title, without this being reflected in the general title of the law.
Twenty-six (26) of these draft laws contained corresponding phrases in their titles as early as when they were tabled in Parliament and/or put to public consultation.
The data on the basis of which the above figures were derived can also be found in summary form εδώ.
In a state governed by the rule of law, the Government and the Parliament must follow and apply the rules that have been established to guarantee and promote good and transparent lawmaking practices.
In Greece, however, the violation of the rules of good lawmaking appears to be a long-standing and systematic problem.
The very frequent inclusion of phrases such as ‘and other provisions’ in the titles of laws can only raise serious concerns as to whether the rules of good lawmaking are actually being followed in the legislative process. This is because the inclusion of such phrases in the title of a law indicates, inter alia, the possibility of the existence of irrelevant (to the main subject matter of the law) provisions in the body of the law, a practice that is contrary to the principles of good lawmaking.
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