General Directorate of Legislation (Taqneen):

The General Directorate of Legislative Drafting and Legal Academic Research Affairs Institute, is one of the professional directorates of Ministry of Justice of Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. It was established in 1956 under the name of General Sub Directorate of Legislation within the framework of the Ministry of Justice. In 1958 the Osolnama on Publication and Observation of law were codified and the General Sub Directorate of Legislation was upgraded to the Directorate of Legislation. After the Bonn Agreement, the Directorate of Legislation aligned itself with the new requirements, and considering the needs on the way to realize the objectives and guidelines of the government, took effective steps, and within this period of time it has drafted, scrutinized and processed more than hundreds of legislative documents (Laws, Regulations, Statutes, and Legislative Decrees).

Structure (Tashkeel) of the General Directorate of Legislative Drafting and Legal Academic Research Affairs Institute:

The General Directorate of Legislative Drafting and Legal Academic Research Affairs Institute, in its structure has one Deputy Director Position and 9 other posts as Department Heads:

• The Deputy Director of the General Directorate of Legislation:
• Department of Translation & Notarization of Official Documents: This department has 15 positions of board of experts for translation of legislative documents, and 2 positions (Manager and Officer) of notarizing translation of documents.
• Department of International and Human Rights Laws: This department, in its tashkeel, has 8 positions of grade 3, 4 and 5 of professional members.
• Department of Commercial and Private Sector Laws: This department, in its tashkeel, has 8 positions of grade 3, 4 and 5 of professional members.
• Department of Labor and Administration Laws:  The department, in its tashkeel, has 8 positions of grade 3, 4 and 5 of professional members.
• Department of Educational, Cultural and Health Laws: This department, in its tashkeel, has 8 positions of grade 3, 4 and 5 of professional members.
• Department of Economy and Finance Laws: This department, in its tashkeel, has 8 positions of grade 3, 4 and 5 of professional members.
• Department of Punitive Laws:  This department, in its tashkeel, has 8 positions of grade 3, 4 and 5 of professional members.
• Department of Civil Laws: This department, in its tashkeel, has 8 positions of grade 3, 4 and 5 of professional members.
• Department of Study, Description and Training of Laws: It has 5 positions for professional research members, one position of supervisory and two managerial positions in its tashkeel.
• Committee of Drafting Laws: This committee has 5 positions of grade 2 and 3 of committee members.

Sub-department of Documentation and Liaison: This Sub-department, in its tashkeel, has one position of General Manager of Laws Database, 2 positions of (Manager and Officer) Classification and Statistics of Laws, one position of Admin Manager, three positions of Admin Officer and 4 positions of computerist.

The Main Objectives of the General Directorate of Legislative Drafting and Legal Academic Research Affairs Institute:

This Institute is the highest academic, research institute in developing, drafting and scrutinizing legislative documents (Laws, decrees, regulations, statutes and amendments, annexes, additions, deletions in those and the ratifications of the Council of Ministers of legislative natures) and presents them to the Council of Ministers of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan for processing.

The Main Duties of the General Directorate of Legislative Drafting and Legal Academic Research Affairs Institute

• Drafting and preparing of the legislative documents;
• Scrutiny of the initial draft of legislative document;
• Scrutiny of the amendment, addition, deletion in the legislative documents according to the request of ministries and other government agencies;
• Scrutiny of international agreements and treaties;
• Preparing proposal of amendment of the legislative documents, taking into consideration the international agreement, treaties and conventions, which Afghanistan has acceded to;
• Providing the required legal advices to the government;
• Providing the required legal advices to the ministries and other government agencies;
• Conducting academic and legal researches in the field of legislation;
• Holding joint meetings with the representatives of the relevant agencies for coordination;
• Expressing views on the compliance of agreements, treaties, MoUs, protocols, conventions and other international agreements with the Afghan Constitution and other laws;
• Study and ensure compliance of the plans prepared by ministries and other government agencies with the provisions of the Afghan Constitutions and other laws;
• Establishing relations with ministries and other government agencies about understanding and implementing of laws;
• Studying the laws of other countries and use them for the purpose of growth of the legal system of the country;
• Translating the laws of other countries into the official languages of the country and utilize them, if necessary;
• Translating of laws of the country into foreign languages, when necessary;
• Preventing contraventions and repetition of the similar provisions in the legislative documents;

• Collecting laws and other legislative documents and organize them within single units.