Designing Right to Information Laws for Effective Implementation

This paper looks at the relationship between the design of a law which aims to give individuals a right to access information held by public authorities, i.e. a right to information (RTI) law, and the successful implementation of that law. The lega...

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Main Author:	Mendel, Toby
Format:	Working Paper
Language:	English en_US
Published:	World Bank, Washington, DC 2015
Subjects:	EMPLOYMENT RISKS MASS MEDIA ANNUAL REPORT PUBLIC INTEREST RIGHTS DESIGNATION GOVERNOR DISCLOSURE OF INFORMATION PRODUCTION OMBUDSMAN ANNUAL REPORTS POLICY FRAMEWORK INTERFACES LAWS GOVERNMENT PRIME MINISTER RESOURCE ALLOCATION INFORMATION MONITORING CONTENTS INCENTIVES SERVANTS CONTENT PARLIAMENT SYSTEM LITERACY RATES DISCLOSURE BINDING CODES INFORMATION SYSTEMS E-GOVERNMENT DRIVERS INFORMATION DISCLOSURE LITERACY ARCHIVES ADVERTISING DATA SELECT COMMITTEE INFORMATION LAWS EXECUTIVE BRANCH DIGITAL PUBLIC INFORMATION TRAINING DOCUMENT INFORMATION SERVICES REPRESENTATIVE SAMPLE CIVIL SOCIETY DEMOCRACY SITE ARTICLES CASES CATALOGUE DOCUMENTS ORGANIZATIONS INFORMATION SERVICE LEGISLATION RESEARCH STANDARDS SERVICE DELIVERY ARTICLE CLASSIFICATION LEGAL FRAMEWORK EFFICIENCY ACCESS TO INFORMATION EQUITY NATIONAL SECURITY RECORDS MANAGEMENT OMBUDSMEN DESCRIPTIONS POLICIES TRANSPARENCY OPEN GOVERNMENT PUBLIC EVENTS PRIVACY ISSUES DECISION- MAKING PROCESSES ARRANGEMENTS ACCESSIBILITY SYSTEMS EFFECTIVE IMPLEMENTATION INFORMATION ANALYSIS ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE EFFECTIVE ENFORCEMENT GOVERNMENT BODIES CASE POLITICAL PARTIES INTERNET MANAGEMENT MEDIA ADMINISTRATION CONCEPT HUMAN RIGHTS PUBLIC TRANSPARENCY THEORY FREEDOM OF INFORMATION SECURITY LEGAL LIABILITY INVESTMENT RISK SUPPLY LAW PROTOCOL DISCLOSURES IT STANDARD WEBSITE PUBLIC AUTHORITIES CABINET AT GOVERNMENT INFORMATION PROCLAMATION CONCEPTS PUBLIC ACCOUNTABILITY PUBLIC SERVICE GOVERNMENTS OUTCOMES ELECTION SAFETY NATIONAL ARCHIVES PUBLIC CONFIDENCE HTML
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2015/08/24869620/designing-right-information-laws-effective-implementation http://hdl.handle.net/10986/22507

id	okr-10986-22507
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-225072021-04-23T14:04:09Z Designing Right to Information Laws for Effective Implementation Mendel, Toby EMPLOYMENT RISKS MASS MEDIA ANNUAL REPORT PUBLIC INTEREST RIGHTS DESIGNATION GOVERNOR DISCLOSURE OF INFORMATION PRODUCTION OMBUDSMAN ANNUAL REPORTS POLICY FRAMEWORK INTERFACES LAWS GOVERNMENT PRIME MINISTER RESOURCE ALLOCATION INFORMATION MONITORING CONTENTS INCENTIVES SERVANTS CONTENT PARLIAMENT SYSTEM LITERACY RATES DISCLOSURE BINDING CODES INFORMATION SYSTEMS E-GOVERNMENT DRIVERS INFORMATION DISCLOSURE LITERACY ARCHIVES ADVERTISING DATA SELECT COMMITTEE INFORMATION LAWS EXECUTIVE BRANCH DIGITAL PUBLIC INFORMATION TRAINING DOCUMENT INFORMATION SERVICES REPRESENTATIVE SAMPLE CIVIL SOCIETY DEMOCRACY SITE ARTICLES CASES CATALOGUE DOCUMENTS ORGANIZATIONS INFORMATION SERVICE LEGISLATION RESEARCH STANDARDS SERVICE DELIVERY ARTICLE CLASSIFICATION LEGAL FRAMEWORK EFFICIENCY ACCESS TO INFORMATION EQUITY NATIONAL SECURITY RECORDS MANAGEMENT OMBUDSMEN DESCRIPTIONS POLICIES TRANSPARENCY OPEN GOVERNMENT PUBLIC EVENTS PRIVACY ISSUES DECISION- MAKING PROCESSES ARRANGEMENTS ACCESSIBILITY SYSTEMS EFFECTIVE IMPLEMENTATION INFORMATION ANALYSIS ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE EFFECTIVE ENFORCEMENT GOVERNMENT BODIES CASE POLITICAL PARTIES INTERNET MANAGEMENT MEDIA ADMINISTRATION CONCEPT HUMAN RIGHTS PUBLIC TRANSPARENCY THEORY FREEDOM OF INFORMATION SECURITY LEGAL LIABILITY INVESTMENT RISK SUPPLY LAW PROTOCOL DISCLOSURES IT STANDARD WEBSITE PUBLIC AUTHORITIES CABINET AT GOVERNMENT INFORMATION PROCLAMATION CONCEPTS PUBLIC ACCOUNTABILITY PUBLIC SERVICE GOVERNMENTS OUTCOMES ELECTION SAFETY NATIONAL ARCHIVES PUBLIC CONFIDENCE HTML This paper looks at the relationship between the design of a law which aims to give individuals a right to access information held by public authorities, i.e. a right to information (RTI) law, and the successful implementation of that law. The legal framework involves both laws and subordinate legislation, such as regulations, which complement the law and are easier to amend, with the result that there is likely to be a more dynamic relationship between the design of regulations and implementation challenges. There is also, of course, the question of how laws are interpreted by the courts, as well as other players, such as oversight bodies, which can impact significantly on implementation of the law. A key issue for this paper is the fact that there is, at least in many countries, a law-implementation or policy-practice gap in the sense that implementation of the RTI law is significantly sub-optimal.1 No law is perfectly implemented, but the gap between the standards of the formal rules and what actually happens is often quite significant for RTI laws. In some settings where observance of the rule of law is low, RTI laws are almost entirely ignored and/or certain key provisions in them are routinely ignored. This sort of radical policy-practice gap makes it difficult to discuss sensibly the relationship between legal design features and implementation, which is the focus of this paper. The paper therefore focuses on contexts where there is a reasonable expectation or an established record of medium to better practice in terms of implementation. A key focus is to discuss ways to reduce the policy-practice gap through more carefully tailored legal design. 2015-08-19T16:28:47Z 2015-08-19T16:28:47Z 2015-01-30 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2015/08/24869620/designing-right-information-laws-effective-implementation http://hdl.handle.net/10986/22507 English en_US Right to information working paper series; CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/ World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Working Paper
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	English en_US
topic	EMPLOYMENT RISKS MASS MEDIA ANNUAL REPORT PUBLIC INTEREST RIGHTS DESIGNATION GOVERNOR DISCLOSURE OF INFORMATION PRODUCTION OMBUDSMAN ANNUAL REPORTS POLICY FRAMEWORK INTERFACES LAWS GOVERNMENT PRIME MINISTER RESOURCE ALLOCATION INFORMATION MONITORING CONTENTS INCENTIVES SERVANTS CONTENT PARLIAMENT SYSTEM LITERACY RATES DISCLOSURE BINDING CODES INFORMATION SYSTEMS E-GOVERNMENT DRIVERS INFORMATION DISCLOSURE LITERACY ARCHIVES ADVERTISING DATA SELECT COMMITTEE INFORMATION LAWS EXECUTIVE BRANCH DIGITAL PUBLIC INFORMATION TRAINING DOCUMENT INFORMATION SERVICES REPRESENTATIVE SAMPLE CIVIL SOCIETY DEMOCRACY SITE ARTICLES CASES CATALOGUE DOCUMENTS ORGANIZATIONS INFORMATION SERVICE LEGISLATION RESEARCH STANDARDS SERVICE DELIVERY ARTICLE CLASSIFICATION LEGAL FRAMEWORK EFFICIENCY ACCESS TO INFORMATION EQUITY NATIONAL SECURITY RECORDS MANAGEMENT OMBUDSMEN DESCRIPTIONS POLICIES TRANSPARENCY OPEN GOVERNMENT PUBLIC EVENTS PRIVACY ISSUES DECISION- MAKING PROCESSES ARRANGEMENTS ACCESSIBILITY SYSTEMS EFFECTIVE IMPLEMENTATION INFORMATION ANALYSIS ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE EFFECTIVE ENFORCEMENT GOVERNMENT BODIES CASE POLITICAL PARTIES INTERNET MANAGEMENT MEDIA ADMINISTRATION CONCEPT HUMAN RIGHTS PUBLIC TRANSPARENCY THEORY FREEDOM OF INFORMATION SECURITY LEGAL LIABILITY INVESTMENT RISK SUPPLY LAW PROTOCOL DISCLOSURES IT STANDARD WEBSITE PUBLIC AUTHORITIES CABINET AT GOVERNMENT INFORMATION PROCLAMATION CONCEPTS PUBLIC ACCOUNTABILITY PUBLIC SERVICE GOVERNMENTS OUTCOMES ELECTION SAFETY NATIONAL ARCHIVES PUBLIC CONFIDENCE HTML
spellingShingle	EMPLOYMENT RISKS MASS MEDIA ANNUAL REPORT PUBLIC INTEREST RIGHTS DESIGNATION GOVERNOR DISCLOSURE OF INFORMATION PRODUCTION OMBUDSMAN ANNUAL REPORTS POLICY FRAMEWORK INTERFACES LAWS GOVERNMENT PRIME MINISTER RESOURCE ALLOCATION INFORMATION MONITORING CONTENTS INCENTIVES SERVANTS CONTENT PARLIAMENT SYSTEM LITERACY RATES DISCLOSURE BINDING CODES INFORMATION SYSTEMS E-GOVERNMENT DRIVERS INFORMATION DISCLOSURE LITERACY ARCHIVES ADVERTISING DATA SELECT COMMITTEE INFORMATION LAWS EXECUTIVE BRANCH DIGITAL PUBLIC INFORMATION TRAINING DOCUMENT INFORMATION SERVICES REPRESENTATIVE SAMPLE CIVIL SOCIETY DEMOCRACY SITE ARTICLES CASES CATALOGUE DOCUMENTS ORGANIZATIONS INFORMATION SERVICE LEGISLATION RESEARCH STANDARDS SERVICE DELIVERY ARTICLE CLASSIFICATION LEGAL FRAMEWORK EFFICIENCY ACCESS TO INFORMATION EQUITY NATIONAL SECURITY RECORDS MANAGEMENT OMBUDSMEN DESCRIPTIONS POLICIES TRANSPARENCY OPEN GOVERNMENT PUBLIC EVENTS PRIVACY ISSUES DECISION- MAKING PROCESSES ARRANGEMENTS ACCESSIBILITY SYSTEMS EFFECTIVE IMPLEMENTATION INFORMATION ANALYSIS ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE EFFECTIVE ENFORCEMENT GOVERNMENT BODIES CASE POLITICAL PARTIES INTERNET MANAGEMENT MEDIA ADMINISTRATION CONCEPT HUMAN RIGHTS PUBLIC TRANSPARENCY THEORY FREEDOM OF INFORMATION SECURITY LEGAL LIABILITY INVESTMENT RISK SUPPLY LAW PROTOCOL DISCLOSURES IT STANDARD WEBSITE PUBLIC AUTHORITIES CABINET AT GOVERNMENT INFORMATION PROCLAMATION CONCEPTS PUBLIC ACCOUNTABILITY PUBLIC SERVICE GOVERNMENTS OUTCOMES ELECTION SAFETY NATIONAL ARCHIVES PUBLIC CONFIDENCE HTML Mendel, Toby Designing Right to Information Laws for Effective Implementation
relation	Right to information working paper series;
description	This paper looks at the relationship between the design of a law which aims to give individuals a right to access information held by public authorities, i.e. a right to information (RTI) law, and the successful implementation of that law. The legal framework involves both laws and subordinate legislation, such as regulations, which complement the law and are easier to amend, with the result that there is likely to be a more dynamic relationship between the design of regulations and implementation challenges. There is also, of course, the question of how laws are interpreted by the courts, as well as other players, such as oversight bodies, which can impact significantly on implementation of the law. A key issue for this paper is the fact that there is, at least in many countries, a law-implementation or policy-practice gap in the sense that implementation of the RTI law is significantly sub-optimal.1 No law is perfectly implemented, but the gap between the standards of the formal rules and what actually happens is often quite significant for RTI laws. In some settings where observance of the rule of law is low, RTI laws are almost entirely ignored and/or certain key provisions in them are routinely ignored. This sort of radical policy-practice gap makes it difficult to discuss sensibly the relationship between legal design features and implementation, which is the focus of this paper. The paper therefore focuses on contexts where there is a reasonable expectation or an established record of medium to better practice in terms of implementation. A key focus is to discuss ways to reduce the policy-practice gap through more carefully tailored legal design.
format	Working Paper
author	Mendel, Toby
author_facet	Mendel, Toby
author_sort	Mendel, Toby
title	Designing Right to Information Laws for Effective Implementation
title_short	Designing Right to Information Laws for Effective Implementation
title_full	Designing Right to Information Laws for Effective Implementation
title_fullStr	Designing Right to Information Laws for Effective Implementation
title_full_unstemmed	Designing Right to Information Laws for Effective Implementation
title_sort	designing right to information laws for effective implementation
publisher	World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate	2015
url	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2015/08/24869620/designing-right-information-laws-effective-implementation http://hdl.handle.net/10986/22507
_version_	1764451279037267968

Designing Right to Information Laws for Effective Implementation

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