Bill Drafting Bibliography -- The Classics

As recommended by the master drafters of the Texas legislature:

Biskind, Elliott L. Simplify Legal Writing. 2nd ed. New York: Arco, 1975. Aimed at the general practitioner. Examines the style and ambiguities of certain examples and rewrites them in proper form. A large portion is devoted to suggestions for avoiding common errors in legal writing.

Dickerson, Reed. Legislative Drafting. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1954. The bible for legislative drafting. Primarily gives answers to everyday drafting problems. [Westport: Greenwood Press, 1977. Reprint of the 1954 edition.]

Filson, Lawrence E., and Sandra L. Strokoff. The Legislative Drafter’s Desk Reference. 2nd ed. Washington, D.C.: CQ Press, 2008. An overview of legislative drafting concerns and considerations with an emphasis on federal statute construction. Provides statutory examples, case studies, and court decision citations to illustrate drafting principles. Also examines the dynamics between legislative and judicial branches in interpreting legislation.


Garner, Bryan A. A Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage. 2nd ed. New York: Oxford UP, 2001. A general reference work that provides definitions of legal terms and guidance on specific points of usage.

Goldfarb, Ronald L., and James C. Raymond. Clear Understandings. New York: Random House, 1982. Demonstrates through anecdotes and examples problems common to legal writing and how to solve them. Does not address legislative drafting but is a readable and entertaining guide to improved legal expression in general.

Haggard, Thomas R. Legal Drafting in a Nutshell. St. Paul: West Publishing Co., 1996. Addresses many facets of the legal drafting process, including style and usage, construction of definitions, contract drafting, and legislative drafting.

Mehlman, Maxwell J., and Edward G. Grossman. Yale Legislative Services Handbook of Legislative Drafting. New Haven: Yale Legislative Services, 1977. Designed to provide instruction in the basic techniques of legislative drafting for nonprofessional drafters. Divided into two main sections—one section concerns word choice and sentence structure and the other concerns the parts of a bill.

Mellinkoff, David. The Language of the Law. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1963. Explores the history and usage of legal language. Well researched, understandable, and humorous. Not a guide for legal drafting but useful to improve writing and drafting skills.

Mellinkoff, David. Legal Writing: Sense and Nonsense. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1982. Provides lively instruction in ways to make legal documents more precise and readable. Does not deal specifically with legislative drafting.

Sutherland, Jabez G. Statutes and Statutory Construction. 6th ed. edited by Norman J. Singer. St. Paul: West Group, 2000. Discussion of legislative powers, constitutional regulations relative to the forms of legislation and to legislative procedure, together with an exposition at length of the principles of statutory interpretation and construction.

The Basics of Writing Statutes Continued

A few trustworthy dictionaries and a killer legal thesaurus are just as important as the right style and grammar resources from the individual legislative drafters' point of view, but far more important to the lawyers, judges, police officers, felons, law abiding citizens, etc., who will rely upon, or be affected by, the law every day of their lives and even into the grave. [More about long, silly sentences later.]

All that being said, I have these dictionaries in my office:

• Black's Law Dictionary, 6th Edition (1990) -- Speaks for itself.
• Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 10th Edition (1996) -- Newest not required.
• Websters Popular Illustrated Dictionary (1937) -- Old defintions can come in handy. I like the pictures, too.

My thesaureses of choice are:

• Burton's Legal Thesaurus, 3rd Edition (1999) -- Simply fabulous.
• Roget's II The New Thesaurus (1980) -- Same old, same old, but the old reliable.

Time is money, so I need not tell you why these books are helpful since you already know that. I will have a lot more to say about them, however, when I opine later about statutory construction.

The Basics of Writing Statutes

The beginning Law Writer requires the proper tools at all times, but must have already mastered English grammar. Impeccable grammar is required to adhere to the rules of the language and to understand when and how to break those rules well.

Strunk & White, The Elements of Style, Any Edition, is a MUST. You shall get a copy and read it thoroughly if you want to write "good" law. No ad, just fact. [More on must vs shall later.]

I use the 3rd Edition, myself. Cost $7.95 in 1979. That fact, however, has nothing to do with my age. The "new rules" featured in that edition covered the use of the colon, the use of the dash, agreement of subjects and verbs, and correct pronoun case. Riveting, my dear reader, simply riveting. More tomorrow on the grammatical and style foundations for legislative drafting.

By the way, this is my play time, so do not expect perfect grammar in this blog.