William Isdale and Nicholas Simoes da Silva

In this piece, we build upon a recent post on legislative complexity by Crawford, Akand, Contractor and Sisson to reveal just how big a problem legislative complexity actually is. In doing so, we will explain how a recently launched ALRC initiative — the DataHub — can deliver new insights for scholars interested in probing these issues further. We will also outline some additional answers to a question posed by Crawford and colleagues: “how do we actually simplify legislation?”, drawing on the ALRC’s latest research.

Lisa Burton Crawford, Elma Akand, Steefan Contractor and Scott Sisson

The ongoing inquiry of the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) into Financial Services Legislation has cast new light on the complexity of legislation enacted by the Australian Parliament. This post aims to harness some of the ‘significant appetite and impetus for change’ that the ALRC identified with respect to federal financial services legislation for the broader phenomenon legislative complexity — which, we argue, has become systemic. This is demonstrated by data that we collected from the Federal Register of Legislation (FRL).

William Isdale and Nicholas Simoes da Silva

Last year marked the 120th anniversary of the Commonwealth statute book – an anniversary that offers an opportunity to reflect on the house of law we have built. There is much to be proud of: a house constructed from the timbers of Parliamentary sovereignty, with strong constitutional foundations.