Vox Emissa Volat, Litera Scripta Manet: On the Role of the Explanatory Note in the Justification of the Draft Law as an Element of Lawmaking

The author explores the significant role of explanatory notes within the legislative process in Uzbekistan, with particular emphasis on their relationship to the concept of the draft law. The research methodology comprises comparative legal analysis, an examination of legislative practice, and the utilization of statistical data. The results of the analysis revealed the presence of legal uncertainty in national legislation: the requirements for the content and structure of the explanatory note, fixed in the Unified Methodology of legal and technical design of draft normative legal acts, as well as information and analytical materials attached to them and the Regulations of the Legislative Chamber of the Oliy Majlis of the Republic of Uzbekistan, vary. The current laws do not contain a clear conceptual and functional distinction between the explanatory note and the concept of the draft law, both in purpose and function. As a result, the concept of the draft law as a tool for improving the quality of the legislative process has not been widely used, and its functions are often performed by an explanatory note to the draft law. This approach outwardly simplifies the rule‑making process, but in practice it leads to a decrease in the depth of elaboration and validity of the adopted laws, which is confirmed by the statistics of draft law dropouts and the formalization of accompanying documents. The article substantiates the expediency of legislating clear requirements for the structure and content of the document accompanying the draft law (primarily an explanatory note). Such regulation can minimize the formal approach to the development of legislative acts and increase the effectiveness of legislative activity, which, in turn, can create the basis for a more accurate assessment of the socio‑legal and economic consequences of the implementation of new laws.