103 While post-legislative scrutiny may be difficult and expensive, it is impossible to
see why it should not be carried out. How much do we really know about the
effects of all the laws that have been passed? In a rational society committed to
the rule of law, even in a post-modern world, we should know more. Passing more
legislation without knowing is like whistling in the dark. It seems to combine the
worst features of both modernity and post-modernism.
Conclusion
104 The time has come to draw the strands of this paper together and state the
conclusions. I am here endeavouring to find a way of implementing some of the
important goals contained in the Law Commissions statute.
105 The bulk of legislation and its various forms poses a problem to the coherence of
the legal system as well as access to its principles and rules. Attention needs to be
given to providing some overall coherence and imposing a pattern on the statute
book, so that it is both orderly and accessible. This will require changes in the
way we present our laws, and changes in the way we index them.
106 When renovating the shape of our statute book and the methods governing access
to it, attention needs to be given to both statutory regulations and deemed
regulations, so that it is apparent what delegated legislation has been made under
the authority of the primary law. This object is by no means as simple to achieve
as it is to state.
107 In considering the balance between primary legislation and delegated legislation,
greater effort has to be made to determine what is appropriate for delegated
legislation and what is not. At present we have no clear bright line rule in New
Zealand about the proper balance. Securing one will require a lot of intellectual
effort.
108 The temptation to download a lot of policy into regulations and other delegated
legislation, needs to be carefully controlled by Parliament. We must not return to
the days when delegated legislation was out of control. We need to pay more
attention to the balance between different forms of legislation. If it is too difficult
to pass primary legislation, resort will be had to delegated legislation, regulations,
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