Overview

Legislation is—next to the elective function and control function—the essential function of a parliament. It emanates from the representative assemblies (monocameral or bicameral) as legitimated organs based on the will of the people.

The history of legislation is closely connected to the history of civilisation (Egypt, Mesopotamia and Ancient Greece). In ancient Athens a three-way distinction prevailed between divine law (themis), human decree (nomos) and custom (dike).² After centuries more detailed rules developed by professional jurists and influenced by Greek philosophy, formed Roman law.³ It was recorded in the Corpus Juris Civilis in the late antiquity (533/534 AD). Being replaced by case law in the

An introductory video can be found on www.writingconstitutions.com and on https://doi.org/10. 1007/978-3-030-94602-9_1.

¹ Bradley and Pinelli (2012), p. 666 point at the debating function which already John Stuart Mill mentioned in his ‘Considerations on Representative Government’ (1861), Mill (1993).

²Vesting (2018), p. 40.

³Kelly (2018), p. 39.

Fig. 6.1 Structural approach to legislation clauses

meantime it was rediscovered in the twelfth century in Italian Universities (Padua, Bologna) and later found its way into legal practice as ius commune through customary law.

The following considerations will focus on the legislative procedures including the right of initiative, reading, and solution of conflicts in bicameral systems, approval or vetoing powers and final publication (Fig. 6.1, Tables 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 6.4, 6.5, and 6.6)4

Secondly the delimitation between legislative competence and the executive will be considered more closely (“delegated legislation”—Table 6.8)^{[377] [378]}

6.2