Conclusion of the Seminar Organized by the House of Representatives and the Venice Commission on “Legal Security and the Quality of Laws: Notions, Stakes, and Comparative Perspectives”

The House of Representatives and the European Commission for Democracy through Law (Venice Commission) organized on May 6 and 7, 2025 in Rabat, a Seminar on the theme “Legal Security and the Quality of Laws: Notions, Stakes, and Comparative Perspectives,” which falls within the framework of the South Program V “Protecting human rights, rule of law and democracy through shared standards in the Southern Mediterranean,” funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe.

During the opening sitting of this Seminar, which featured the participation of a number of Moroccan and European parliamentarians, international experts, and academics, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Rachid Talbi El Alami, stressed the importance of the debate on legal security and the quality of laws, with the aim of accumulating parliamentary and democratic culture to cover all the prerogatives and functions of the Parliament, and ensuring the quality and efficiency of national legislation and its ability to be understood and interpreted closer to its essence and purposes.

Besides, the Speaker reviewed the tremendous legislative breakthrough achieved by Morocco during the last 25 years, i.e. since the ascension of His Majesty King Mohammed VI to the Throne, where the Moroccan Parliament adopted 1477 legal texts, adding that these texts reflected and framed the profound and bold reforms adopted by the Kingdom in the field of protection of rights and freedoms, economy, services, administration, social and spatial development, and solidarity.

The Speaker stressed that the position of the Kingdom of Morocco at the regional, continental and international levels, the diversity of its political, economic and human relations with many countries, and its keenness to fulfill its international commitments require regulating this dynamic and responding to its legislative requirements.

The opening sitting continued with the intervention of the Deputy to the Secretary of the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe, Mr. Pierre GARRONE, who stressed the importance of legal security as a fundamental pillar to ensure the stability and clarity of legislation, referring to the central principles facing the work of the Venice Commission, namely: legitimacy, security, prevention, equality and access to justice, with a focus on accessibility to jurisprudence.

The Deputy to the Secretary of the Venice Commission also highlighted the role of the latter in evaluating laws through precise mechanisms that measure the quality and effectiveness of legislative frameworks, adding that the application of these principles contributes to enhancing citizens' trust in institutions and anticipating legislative risks, calling for the adoption of the Commission's recommendations to enhance transparency and facilitate access to legal and judicial sources.

For her part, Louise Barton, Director of Committees at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), highlighted the democratic reforms witnessed by the Kingdom of Morocco, which showed that the reform is not only internal but also reaches the Mediterranean and African regions, highlighting in this regard Law 103-13 on violence against women, which aims to provide legal protection for women victims of violence, for which PACE organized a colloquium to evaluate it. She also reviewed the outcome of cooperation with Moroccan parliamentarians through exchange visits and joint seminar with the Moroccan House of Representatives.

In the same sitting, Mr. François Seners, member of the French Constitutional Council and additional member of the Venice Commission for France, stressed the importance of the principle of predictability in legislation to ensure that citizens know the effects of the law in advance and avoid legal instability, explaining that legislative impact assessment requires an active role for judges and administrations in monitoring the application of laws and ensuring that the rules in force are consistent with the principles of the rule of law. He also pointed out that the normative process requires bringing together different legal structures within a harmonized framework that allows comparing the different experiences of legal cultures, thus enhancing the ability to develop clearer and more consistent legislative texts.

The debate continued during the first sitting devoted to “Predictability in and through law.” In this respect, the speakers emphasized the pivotal role of legislative drafting techniques, especially clarity of language, text structure, and references in enhancing legal security and making the effects of laws predictable.

The panelists agreed that legislative legitimacy and security require the provision of texts that are easy for citizens to understand and rely on, while clarity of language ensures the guarantee of rights and enables the individual to control his legal behavior with confidence. They also added that clear text structure and accurate references to constitutional and international references constitute mechanisms for the dissemination of normative information, thus increasing transparency and limiting conflicting interpretations.

The presentations also emphasized the crucial role of the “statement of reasons” in enhancing legal security and making the effects of legislative texts predictable, as the concept of “statement of reasons” is the bridge between textual requirements and constitutional ends.

During the second sitting of the Seminar, the debate addressed the topic of “Public’s access to laws” as a key element in promoting legal culture and legal awareness in society, providing understandable and easily accessible legislative texts, which enhances the ability of citizens to know their rights and obligations, reinforces the principle of the rule of law, and reduces the manifestations of violations or abuses.

The debate also led to the conclusion emphasizing the necessity of establishing digital platforms that provide access to legal texts and judicial rulings, accompanied by awareness programs and training workshops to deepen the understanding of rules and procedures, as well as the role of academic and civil institutions in spreading legal culture through educational initiatives targeting various segments of society, especially youth.

During the third sitting, which was dedicated to the topic of “Organizing discretionary powers to prevent arbitrary decisions,” the speakers reviewed some comparative experiences in Europe on legislative drafting techniques aimed at defining and structuring discretionary powers in accordance with the principle of legal security. The panelists also listed the provisions of the constitutions in Morocco and Europe that concern legal security, the precise criteria for evaluating legal decisions, and the authority authorized to interpret legal texts.

Participants in this sitting called for addressing issues of legal security by activating judicial oversight and administrative directives as a safeguard to protect fundamental rights against “arbitrary application of the law.”

The interventions emphasized that protection against administrative arbitrariness requires a precise judicial understanding of fundamental rights and freedoms, as the judicial power plays a pivotal role in interpreting these rights to ensure a balance between the requirements of public order and the guarantees of individuals.

The speakers emphasized that entrenching the principle that the administration is subject to the law is not only achieved by developing the legislative framework, but requires a strong institutional will to translate this principle into a tangible reality.

The speakers concluded that the quality of legislation is a pivotal element in limiting the discretionary power of the administration, thus strengthening the principles of transparency and accountability in administrative work. They also stressed that improving the quality of legal rules goes through the adoption of a careful legislative methodology, based on careful drafting, ex-ante impact studies, and the need for harmonization between different legal texts.

The recommendations of the participants during this Seminar included a call for complementarity between the roles of the three branches of government and institutional cooperation between them as a basic rule of constitutional law.