About CALC

CALC is the Commonwealth Association of Legislative Counsel. CALC's object is to promote cooperation in matters of professional interest among people in the Commonwealth engaged in legislative drafting or in training people in legislative drafting. CALC has members in most parts of the Commonwealth.

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About CALC

CALC is the Commonwealth Association of Legislative Counsel. CALC's object is to promote cooperation in matters of professional interest among people in the Commonwealth engaged in legislative drafting or in training people in legislative drafting. CALC has members in most parts of the Commonwealth.

Read more

About CALC

CALC is the Commonwealth Association of Legislative Counsel. CALC's object is to promote cooperation in matters of professional interest among people in the Commonwealth engaged in legislative drafting or in training people in legislative drafting. CALC has members in most parts of the Commonwealth.

Read more

About CALC

CALC is the Commonwealth Association of Legislative Counsel. CALC's object is to promote cooperation in matters of professional interest among people in the Commonwealth engaged in legislative drafting or in training people in legislative drafting. CALC has members in most parts of the Commonwealth.

Read more

About CALC

CALC is the Commonwealth Association of Legislative Counsel. CALC's object is to promote cooperation in matters of professional interest among people in the Commonwealth engaged in legislative drafting or in training people in legislative drafting. CALC has members in most parts of the Commonwealth.

Read more
Pause

Her Majesty The Queen

The death of Her Majesty The Queen is a profoundly sad moment for the Commonwealth.

Her Majesty's life was one of extraordinary dedication and service and throughout her reign she enjoyed a long and enduring bond with people across the Commonwealth.

On behalf of CALC, I convey our sincere sorrow and deepest condolences to The King, The Queen Consort and all the Royal Family.

Andy Beattie, CALC President (2022)

​Legislative responses to COVID-19

See the information table at this new page.

RSS feeds

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Meredith Leigh appointed new First Parliamentary Counsel

Congratulations to Meredith Leigh on her appointment as the new First Parliamentary Counsel, Australian Government Office of Parliamentary Counsel.

Honours for 2 exceptional legislative drafters 

CALC’s President, Geoff Lawn, says: “2 CALC members have been made a Dame Commander of the Order of the Bath in this year’s UK Queen’s Birthday Honours. These are our very own Brenda King, our Immediate Past President, and Elizabeth Gardiner, First Parliamentary Counsel in the UK OPC. This is such wonderful and well-deserved recognition of their many years of service, and it is great to see the work of legislative drafters recognised in this way. I have congratulated Brenda and Elizabeth on behalf of CALC.”

Congratulations to Peter Quiggin on his appointment as a Queen's Counsel

CALC members congratulate Peter Quiggin PSM on his appointment as a Queen's Counsel.

Hon Christian Porter MP, Attorney General for Australia, made the appointment announcement on 15 October 2020.

Mr Quiggin PSM is First Parliamentary Counsel, Office of Parliamentary Counsel. He has served as Australia’s First Parliamentary Counsel since 2004. Mr Quiggin was awarded a Public Service Medal in the 2008 Australia Day Honours List for outstanding public service in delivering the government's legislative agenda at a time of significant legislative change and in a number of critical areas.

Peter has also served as CALC's President from 2011 to 2017. As CALC members appreciate, Peter also showed outstanding leadership and service in that role.

Above is a recent photo of Peter with the banner that celebrates OPC’s 50th anniversary.

Pacific Toolkit: From policy to legislation

Congratulations to the Pacific Islands Law Officers' Network (PILON) and Australian Attorney-General's Department on launching this Toolkit.

The Toolkit is available for download here.

Pacific Islands Law Officers' Network logo and Pacific Toolkit logo

Coming up

CALC Europe Conference 2025

When: 17 - 18 September 2025

Where: Belfast

More info: Registration information is available on the conference page.

 

Statute Law Society Conference

Legislation and the Constitution: Renton 50 Years On

When: 5 - 6 June 2025

Where: London

More info: Registration information is available on the conference page.

 

2025 International Legislative Drafting Institute

The Public Law Center at Tulane Law School will host the 30th Anniversary of its International Legislative Drafting Institute in 2025.

When: 9 - 20 June 2025

Where: New Orleans

More info: Registration information is available on the conference page.

 

New Job Alerts

Visit the employment page for details.

  • Legislative Counsel, Associate Director, Qatar Financial Centre Regulatory Authority, Doha, Qatar
  • Legal Advisor (Bills), Legislative Assembly for the Australian Capital Territory, Canberra, Australia.
  • Legal Drafters, extension of the Open List Agreement, Belfast, Northern Ireland.

 

Loophole submissions

You can view a comprehensive collection of the CALC Loopholes here.

The Loophole is a journal for the publication of articles on drafting, legal, procedural and
management issues relating to the preparation and enactment of legislation. It features
articles presented at CALC’s bi-annual conferences. CALC members and others interested
in legislative topics are also encouraged to submit articles for publication.

Submissions should be no more than 8,000 words (including footnotes) and be accompanied
by an abstract of no more than 200 words. They should be formatted in MSWord (or similar
compatible word processing software) adopting the style set out in the template found here.

Submissions and other correspondence about The Loophole should be addressed to —

Aleksander Hynnä, Editor in Chief, The Loophole
E-mail: loophole.calc@gmail.com

Latest Newsletter

SUBMISSION DETAILS:
The CALC Newsletter is a quarterly publication sharing updates, announcements, and professional news relevant to members. It provides a space for community connection around the Commonwealth. Please contact the CALC Secretary if you are interested in contributing to the next newsletter.

For a comprehensive collection of the CALC Newsletters, please see the Newsletter archive.

Latest Loophole

  • April 2025 Edition of Loophole ( 2.2 MB | )

SUBMISSION DETAILS:
The Loophole is a journal for the publication of articles on drafting, legal, procedural and
management issues relating to the preparation and enactment of legislation. It features
articles presented at CALC’s bi-annual conferences. CALC members and others interested
in legislative topics are also encouraged to submit articles for publication.

Submissions should be no more than 8,000 words (including footnotes) and be accompanied
by an abstract of no more than 200 words.

They should be formatted in MSWord (or similar compatible word processing software) adopting
the style set out in the template available on the CALC home page.

Submissions and other correspondence about The Loophole should be addressed to —

Aleksander Hynnä, Editor in Chief, The Loophole
E-mail: loophole.calc@gmail.com

For a comprehensive collection of the CALC Loopholes, please see the Loophole archive.

Employment

For more information about employment opportunities and contract drafters, see the Employment page

CALC provides links to information about various courses and training in legislative drafting.

View training page

Services

CALC has a number of services that are provided for the benefit of members and legislative drafting offices.

These services include:

  • advertising drafting positions
  • the CALC online drafting advice service
  • the CALC office organisation advice service.

For more details, please see the CALC Services Page.

Mon, 14/10/2024 - 17:23 -- Annette O’Callaghan

This is an automatic email from the Commonwealth Association of Legislative Counsel.

Dear colleagues
Please see below from Alex Gordon, First Legislative Counsel, Office of the Legislative Counsel (OLC) in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
More details are available on the CALC website here:
___________________________________________

Mon, 19/12/2022 - 09:17 -- opcit_admin

This is an automatic email from the Commonwealth Association of Legislative Counsel.

test please ignore
just kate, anil, and the ebusiness account are receiving these emails.

Mon, 19/12/2022 - 09:14 -- opcit_admin

This is an automatic email from the Commonwealth Association of Legislative Counsel.

test --please ignore

Fri, 16/12/2022 - 19:56 -- Kate Hannah

This is an automatic email from the Commonwealth Association of Legislative Counsel.

Dear CALC members

Having spoken with many members across all regions it is clear that there is strong enthusiasm for a return of CALC in-person gatherings and so I am very pleased to announce that plans are now in place to hold a series of CALC events over the next 18 months.

These will begin next year with the following events:

Fri, 16/12/2022 - 02:02 -- Kate Hannah

This is an automatic email from the Commonwealth Association of Legislative Counsel.

This is a test just to check the settings - please delete.

Tue, 22/11/2022 - 05:44 -- Kate Hannah

This is an automatic email from the Commonwealth Association of Legislative Counsel.

Dear CALC Members

The November 2022 edition of the CALC Newsletter is now available at https://calc.ngo/publications/newsletters (in PDF or Word).

Tue, 01/11/2022 - 02:08 -- Kate Hannah

This is an automatic email from the Commonwealth Association of Legislative Counsel.

Dear Calc Members

The October 2022 edition of the CALC Loophole is now available at https://calc.ngo/publications/loopholes (in PDF or Word).

Fri, 21/10/2022 - 09:36 -- opcit_admin

This is an automatic email from the Commonwealth Association of Legislative Counsel.

test again, please ignore

Fri, 21/10/2022 - 09:14 -- opcit_admin

This is an automatic email from the Commonwealth Association of Legislative Counsel.

test please ignore

Fri, 21/10/2022 - 09:07 -- opcit_admin

This is an automatic email from the Commonwealth Association of Legislative Counsel.

Dear Calc members,
Apologies for the spam email. This is just the test for a new feature that we are introducing on the site. Please ignore or delete this email.
Kind Regards,

Pages

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Publications catalogue

Find papers and articles published in the Newsletter or Loophole.

View Publications catalogue

Forum

The forum is only available for registered and logged in members.

Drafting manuals and other resources

CALC provides links to online drafting manuals and other resources.

View Drafting manuals and other resources page

Training

CALC provides links to information about various courses and training in legislative drafting.

View training page