I have prepared this simple diagram to describe the documents I come across as I travel from one jurisdiction to another. It is not a California Diagram or even a US diagram. It represents what I have come across in my most recent work. I am surprised by its consistency from Hong Kong to the US Congress. The words might differ in one way or another, but by an large, the concepts are all quite similar. Simple research on Wikipedia seemed to be in agreement with this too.
The boxes in green represent where I believe there are holes with Akoma Ntoso. In all cases I have come across, drafts are written as bills or resolutions rather than as "drafts". Because they're not published as drafts, there is little need for a <draft> tag. The UK might beg to differ though.
I think that there is a misplaced worry over the term Resolution - perhaps there is a story behind that. I have looked at UN and EU resolutions and they're essentially the same thing as US and California's resolutions. California's resolutions tend to be simple, but that's a consequence of the "but one subject" rule. US Federal resolutions aren't always so simple.
I would not characterize non-binding resolutions them as "non-normative", which I take to mean "not prescriptive". That term is better left to academic and standards contexts. The term "non-binding" seems to better convey the sense that any recommendations contained within aren't enforceable. It's a well used term and well understood.
As far as I can tell, any resolution can propose law. But if that resolution invokes the power to enact that proposal, by using an enacting formula, that that resolution is a bill and the laws it proposes become law upon enactment. Without the enacting formula, the proposed law is merely a recommendation. This is why a constitutional amendment shows amendments to law, but leaves out the enacting formula as the legislature lacks the power to use it on the Constitution. Thus, that document becomes a non-binding resolution - a recommendation to the people. It also appears that many jurisdictions (in the US at least) have chosen to omit the preamble from bills in recent decades. When I look back 100 years or so, bills always seem to have preambles and are much more difficult to distinguish from other resolutions.
So a bill is a resolution, but a resolution isn't necessarily a bill. But while technically both non-binding resolutions and bills are "Resolutions" in the general sense, the more common general term used is "measure" or simply "legislation". Measures are either "Non-Binding" resolutions or are "Bills".
So I would vote to either use the terms "bill" and "resolution" if there are to be two terms or to use a single term "measure" which is the established all encompassing term.
So I would vote to either use the terms "bill" and "resolution" if there are to be two terms or to use a single term "measure" which is the established all encompassing term.
Regarding the name for a non-authoritative composition of law, as with non-positive law titles, I am more concerned that the concept exist than about the name given.
-- Grant
____________________________________________________________________
Grant Vergottini
Xcential Group, LLC.
email: grant.vergottini@xcential.com
phone: 858.361.6738
____________________________________________________________________
Grant Vergottini
Xcential Group, LLC.
email: grant.vergottini@xcential.com
phone: 858.361.6738