Mauro Zamboni (Stockholm University – Faculty of Law) has posted For Whom Should Legislation be Written? Legislative Audiences, Legal Outputs, and Participatory Democracy on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
Modern legislation is commonly portrayed as a universal instrument addressed equally to all citizens. This article challenges that assumption by arguing that legislative texts are inevitably written for particular audiences and that identifying a primary or “default” addressee is a decisive normative choice in legislative drafting. Drawing on democratic theory, legal theory, and comparative examples, the article examines the tension between participatory democracy’s demand for accessibility and the increasing technical complexity of contemporary law. It develops a typology of four ideal-typical legislative audiences (the general public, specific stakeholders, the legal audience, and the internal institutional audience) and shows how each presupposes distinct linguistic, structural, and conceptual drafting strategies.
The article further introduces and elaborates the distinction between legislative outputs and legislative outcomes to clarify how legislation operates as a regulatory instrument. While legislative outcomes concern broader social effects, legislative outputs consist of the immediate legal changes produced within the legal system itself. On this basis, the article argues that legislative drafting should, as a default, primarily address the legal audience responsible for interpreting, implementing, and enforcing the law, since legislation’s core function is to generate precise and enforceable legal outputs. At the same time, the article maintains that participatory democracy is not undermined by this choice, provided that legal technicality in core legislative texts is complemented by accessible explanatory materials aimed at the general public.
The article ultimately defends a dual-framework model of legislative communication: a technically rigorous legal text directed at legal actors, combined with supplementary explanatory instruments that promote transparency, public understanding, and democratic legitimacy. By reconciling legal precision with participatory ideals, the article offers a normative framework for audience-conscious legislative drafting in complex modern legal systems.
Cutting edge work on an important and foundational topic. Highly recommended.