¹⁰Rt Hon Lord Oliver of Aylmerton, A Judicial View of Modern Legislation, (1993) 10 Stat LR 2. 5 The framers of that Act have not defined “accessible”, but the dual concepts of comprehensibility and accessibility would, I suggest, indicate that they had more in mind than merely facilitating understanding. Lord Oliver of Aylmerton has said: For every legislative enactment consitutes a diktat by the state to the citizen which he is not only expected but obliged to observe in the regulation of his daily life and it is the judge and the judge alone who stands between the citizen and the state’s own i nterpretation of its own rules. That is why it is so vitally important that legislation should be expressed in language that  can  be  clearly  unde rstood  and   why  it  should  be  in  a  form   that  makes  it  readily accessible.  Edmund  Burke  observed  that  bad  laws  are  the  worst  form  of  tyranny.  But equally, well-intentioned laws that are badly drafted or not readily accessible are also a form of tyranny...¹⁰ This  paper  attempts  to  identify  some  of  the  principal  factors  that  influence  the content and design of the law and how this affects access to justice. I have not done a comparative study of measures and practices in other jurisdictions to promote principled law-making. However, I can offer a few observations about the New Zealand scene along with a look at one or two other jurisdictions to try to assess how   well   theory   translates   into   practice.   As   the   theme   of   this   conference provocatively asks, is it reality or just rhetoric? Part 2 Influences on the content of legislation 8 There a number of  influences on the development of legislative policy, the design and drafting of legislation, and the implementation of legislation in New Zealand.