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The Law Making Process
Cristian Untila

The chapter looks at the technical and procedural aspects of the legislative activity of the Parliament, and considers the stages that a bill needs to go through until it becomes law. The author undertakes a thorough description of how the legislative bill is developed, the legislative initiative and its introduction in the Parliament, the procedures of examination and adoption of legislative bills in the Parliament, and the one of promulgating the adopted laws.

In a brief comment on the Moldovan law making process the author notes that while in the first years after Moldova declared independence the lack of a comprehensive legislative framework was due to the continuous economic and political transformations, now, 11 years on since independence and eight years on since the adoption of the Constitution, one can hardly say that the Moldovan legislative framework is stable, democratic, and well fit for the current circumstances and existing international standards. One reason for such state of affairs resides in the fact that the process of development and adoption of legislation still suffers of gaps and is not yet fully transparent to allow for an open debate by the general public. The closed nature of the legislative process entails the danger of people loosing faith in the new regime, while the old regime is irreversibly ruined.

Recently the Parliament adopted a number of changes to its Regulations and to the Law on Government whereby Parliament and Government bills may be published for public debate. However, both the decision to publish individual bills and the decision to take account of the feedback coming from the public on those bills belong exclusively to the legislative and executive powers which are renown for their reluctance to open up for the citizens.

The government's inability to involve the public in the legislative process rather than the imperfection of the current legislative framework is held accountable for the low law-abiding culture in Moldova. Then and only then when the entire society is given the opportunity to discuss, accept and support the ideas that later become law will laws be duly respected and yield the expected outcomes in Moldova.

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