Public Order under Law: The Role of the Advisor-Draftsman in the Formation of Code or Constitution (with Harold D. Lasswell)

Abstract

PROBLEMS of special gravity face the lawyer who serves as advisor or draftsman to a constitutional convention or a legislative body. The consequences of his advice, if it is taken, will reverberate large and long; and in the performance of his advisory functions he must take account not only of these consequences but of special obstacles as well. It is our purpose here to examine certain aspects of the advisor-draftsman's role in the making of a constitution or a legal code: his professional relation to his client, the community's representative; the special tools of knowledge and language employed by him; and his function in the decision-making process of the body politic. Finally, we shall draw in a background picture of the legal system as a whole, analyzing it into the various component codes with which the advisor-draftsman immediately deals.