Effective Legislation: The Case Of Environmental Protection Laws In Mexico
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.19135/revista.consinter.00022.01Keywords:
Parliamentary law, effectiveness, efficency, efficacy, quality of legislation, environmental lawsAbstract
Legislation is a regulatory instrument that responds to social phenomena. Effectiveness of the law is not a sufficient guarantee for good quality legislation. It also requires to consider the aim of the laws in relation to two complementary criteria: the efficacy that is focused on the degree to which the legislative action is based on its objective; and efficiency, which evaluates the relationship between the “costs” and the “benefits”. An expanded criterion of effectiveness is concentrated in the content of the law, in the results directly associated with the standard and the mechanics of the solution included: Does the law work according to the design? Does it accomplish direct objectives? Does it have positive impacts? Does it produce undesirable results? Does it reach the maximum benefits with the least cost (economic and social)? The analysis of an ex post legislative evaluation of environmental laws in force serves to verify the relevance of complementing the criterion of effectiveness with the efficacy and efficiency, to favor the quality of the norm.
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