polity In this respect Barth is proved to be very helpful.

The second phase implise cooperation of

theology and law in formulating church polity rules. The third one is the field of interpretation
and application of the form as formulated. The final phase is concerned with a critical evaluation
of the existing rules. In the following paragraphs we will focus on the second and the third phase.

Legisprudence

A relatively new branch of legal theory is legisprudence (or: legistics), i.e. the One of the
legislation academics study of processses of legislation from a systematic perspective. It covers
a whole range of question. What is the use of the codification of law? Which steps have to be
distinguished in the process of legislation? Which rules are governlegislative technique? What is
the relations between law and language, e.g with regerd to simplicty and gender neutrality?
"Laws should be short, clear and simple to the extent that it is consistent with their purpose,
meaning and comprehensiveness" (Rees 2008, 2o). So, how can clarity and precision be
enhanced, and ambiguity be prevented? What makes laws efficacious, effective and efficient (cf
Xanthaki 20o8)? Many other and more specific questions can be added.

naturally, it is not many people that are involved in processes like drafting a church order,
preparing necessary change in the existing regulaticns. I presume that most churches beyond a
certain size have a standing committee to take care of such obligations, and that in many cases
some civil lawyers will be involved as well. I myself do have the best memories of the
interesting discussions 1 participated in when drafting the church order, that had to be operative
after unification of three churches into the Protestant Church in the Netherlands (2004). It
required, indeed, a strong cooperation of theology and law.

It is not unusual to see the responsibility of drafting legislation as a pretty limited one. In this
case, drafting is regarded to be a purely technical activity. which should be separated from policy
making as much as possible. In terms of church polity this would mean: synods (or other
authocessary church order commitees- consisting of drafters as kind of technicians-take care of
drafting new legislation accordingly. Is not that all?

In a policy process five stages can be distinguished (1) The initiation of such process, setting the
agenda, (2) the formulation of specific proposals, (3) the implementation, (4) the evaluation, and
(s) the decision, based on the evaluation, to continue, revise or terminate the policy. The role of
drafter in the second phase is clear. The situation is more complicated. On the one hand, the
necessary interaction of intended policies and legislative options (possibilities and limitations)
makes it important to include drafters already in the initations phase, and to let them participate
in evaluation as well, in order to prevent synods from taking decisions that in terms of legislative
technique lack all feasibility.