Goals and Measures of Legislation: Evaluation

Abstract

This article assesses a process for evaluating the connection between legislation and its goals (or intended effects) in a certain community. In particular, the purpose of the chapter is to clarify both the terms of and modalities through which the connection between ideals (goals) and evaluation of the final product (measures) of a piece of legislation is created. Three main aspects of legislative goals can be relevant to the evaluative process: the structure of the legislative goals, their function and their location. The structure of the legislative goals comprises three ideal-typical categorisations: where the legislative goal is intended to be realised (positioning), when the legislative goal is intended to be realised (perspective) and how the legislative goal can be traced (visibility). The functions of the goals of legislation can be divided based on a chronological criterion (and can be subdivided between preliminary expectations and final expectations) or by assessing where the intended impact is located in time (the micro-, meso- and macro-functions of the legislation). The third and final perspective in evaluating the goals of legislation involves their location, ie considering the list of documents that can be relevant (as either an exhaustive or an open list) and examining this material using either traditional or non-traditional analytical instruments.