Graduate Diploma in Legislative Drafting - Frequently asked questions

The Graduate Diploma in Legislative Drafting (GDLD) is principally designed for early and mid-career legislative counsel, lawyers who wish to pursue that career, and lawyers in private practice who offer legislative drafting services to their clients.

Legislative counsel are specialized lawyers who provide services to governments and lawmakers including:

• legal and legislative advice and opinions on proposals for legislation
• assistance in achieving policy goals through legislation where appropriate
• impartial legislative drafting services

The GDLD may also be valuable for policy advisors and others who help to prepare laws, regulations and bylaws for non-governmental organizations such as First Nations, professional associations, trade unions, and other groups.

Knowledgeable and skilled legislative drafters are in demand by government legal departments and other ministries throughout the Commonwealth. Legislative counsel are recognized as specialized legal practitioners. Legislative drafting knowledge and skills are also valuable for legal practitioners offering drafting services and other professionals engaged with legislation, such as policy analysts and advisors and legislative planners. The ability to draft clear and concise laws, rules, and regulations may also be put to use in assisting municipalities, unions, corporations, and other organizations.

The Athabasca University GDLD has diploma graduates in many Commonwealth countries, and the diploma is becoming a recognized qualification for applicants for these positions. Training in legislative drafting is an asset that should help candidates distinguish themselves in an increasingly competitive staffing environment. So, beyond the training itself, possessing this recognized credential is moving towards international recognition as a desired qualification.

If you do not have a law degree but have related experience and the GDLD there are also opportunities. In connection with governments, several other offices often benefit from the services of people with legislative drafting backgrounds, such as legislative planning offices, civil service departments, city and rural municipality departments, unions, larger corporate offices involved in policy drafting and implementation, Indigenous self-government initiatives, and generally any other occupation that requires drafting policies, collective agreements, regulations, bylaws and other documentation where precise and consistent drafting is advantageous.

According to a study conducted by the program, most of our students find that the courses provide additional knowledge and experience for their day-to-day tasks in legislative drafting and legislative planning offices. The Commonwealth of Learning (from whom Athabasca University licensed the materials) previously had Canadian drafting experts review and comment upon the program. They believed that taking the program was roughly equivalent to 2 years of on-the-job experience in a drafting office. All the experts who have reviewed the program materials, both Canadian and international, are very favourably impressed with the quality of the materials. It is not a stretch to claim that the materials set an international drafting standard of training for Commonwealth countries.

There are many strengths, and very few drawbacks, to distance learning for legislative drafting experience. These have been summarized in an article, "Producing Legislative Counsel: Ways and Means", by Dale Dewhurst, Lionel Levert Q.C. and Archie Zariski, Statute Law Review, Vol 33 pp.339-353 (2012).

The principal challenge of studying individually online is dedicating sufficient time to complete a course in a timely manner. Planning for regular study and assignment work sessions is key.

Some strengths are:

• May shorten the period of in-service training required
• Students may study at their own pace
• Some theory may be considered
• Students may be more motivated than in residential courses

There are 5 courses required to complete the program. The first four courses are designed to take approximately 6 months to complete. The final 6-credit capstone course is expected to be completed within 12 months. However, because the courses are designed on an individual study basis, students may complete courses sooner if their time permits. In instances where employment/other demands take priority, it is also possible for students to purchase up to three 2-month extensions per course.

The program could be completed in 2 years with full-time study or as long as 5 years with part-time study. These timelines primarily depend on how much time students can dedicate to studying the courses. Students employed in a drafting office might seek some accommodation to assist their studies.

In every course there will be a specific instructor assigned to work with the student. The exception is the final project LGST 600, where there is a possibility of having 2 instructors assigned (one as Supervisor, one as Co-Supervisor). However, over the course of the program we try to avoid having the students work with the same instructor for every course. It is our opinion that the diversity in instructors from different Commonwealth jurisdictions leads to a better overall learning outcome for the students. For a list of our instructors, see our faculty page.

There are some initial application and admission fees, which must be paid upfront. Then, for the courses themselves, fees are due as students register for each course. For more information on GDLD fees, please see the Graduate calendar.

Students are admitted monthly. Application files are reviewed once all application documents have been received. Students are then notified as to the admission decision.

Each 3-credit course has a 6-month contract period, but students may purchase up to three 2-month extensions. Students have until their course end date to extend their course. To process your extension, these fees must be submitted with your extension request.

Ordinarily, a student would be expected to finish each 3-credit course within a maximum of 1 year (i.e. after 3 extensions), but in exceptional circumstances, some further time may be granted.

There is no official minimum time set to complete each course since students set their own pace. However, students should allow at least 2 weeks between submitting a project for assessment and receiving the mark, comments and feedback from the instructor. Since there are between 5 and 6 projects per course, we recommend that students plan to spend at least 3 months per course. This assumes that the student has sufficient time to study the course materials and complete the projects.

Therefore, to complete the entire diploma program successfully we recommend a minimum study duration of 15 to 18 months for planning purposes.

We consider the diploma as equivalent to approximately one-half of a Masters degree program. Graduates may ladder their diploma into 2 Masters programs as described here. 

With permission from the program director, a student may take a maximum of 2 courses simultaneously.