AN EXAMINATION OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND LEGISLATIVE DRAFTING THROUGH A COMPARATIVE LENS

Abstract

Legislative drafting is a unique discipline of law that requires precision and attention to detail. The legislative drafting process is characterised by a potential for significant inefficiencies and a risk of error. Converting complex policy objectives into precise legal language is a time-consuming task that often relies on the expertise of a limited pool of legal professionals. As the volume and complexity of legislation grows, traditional manual drafting methods are increasingly inadequate. This has led to delays in lawmaking, inconsistencies in legal text, and potential loopholes that can undermine the effectiveness of legislation. While Artificial Intelligence (AI) has shown promise in areas such as legal research and document analysis, its application to the creation of legislative text remains relatively unexplored. This gap presents a substantial opportunity to harness AI's capabilities to enhance the legislative drafting process's efficiency, accuracy, and consistency. Therefore, this paper seeks to advocate for an AI guide to assist in drafting legislation. This paper demonstrates the transformative potential of AI in the legislative sphere, paving the way for a more modern and effective lawmaking process. This paper also investigates the extant regulatory frameworks for AI in Nigeria. It adopts a comparative lens to analyse the experiences of other jurisdictions, particularly those with legislative drafting AI software. This paper finds that it is necessary to harness AI tools' innovation to improve the legislative drafting process's quality, efficiency, and accuracy. It accordingly recommends that an AI-powered tool be developed to draft legislation in Nigeria.