Bill drafted by the Cabinet/Kabinettsentwurf

A terminology query has reached me from Anon. I love solving terminology queries, but I need to do my VAT and translate, and I have been thinking about terminology for the last two days. So I’m throwing this query to the crowd and seeing if anyone feels like answering it.

The Germans have a Kabinettsentwurf, which is some form of draft legislation. What might this be in British English? Context relates to energy legislation:

bq. Das neue Energiewirtschaftsgesetz (EnWG), das die zukünftigen
Rahmenbedingungen auf dem deutschen Energiemarkt festlegen wird,
liegt wegen des hohen Abstimmungsbedarfs der beteiligten Ministerien
erst jetzt als Kabinettsentwurf vor.

Current proposed translation is:

bq. The new Energy Industry Act (EnWG) that will define the future regulatory
framework for the German energy market has only now been submitted as
draft legislation to the German cabinet because of the substantial need for
coordination between the ministries involved.

Hamblock-Wessels says cabinet bill, and apparently these do exist in some jurisdictions, but I’m unfamiliar with them.

3 thoughts on “Bill drafted by the Cabinet/Kabinettsentwurf

  1. I like “draft legislation”. But isn’t it a draft by the cabinet, being in turn submitted to the parliament, rather than to the cabinet?

  2. That’s what I wondered – it’s not my translation suggestion. I haven’t yet even researched the German meaning.

  3. I have had a bit of a look at this myself now. In the UK, I know only of public bills, private members’ bills and private bills. The private bills are most fun because they may relate to only one person.
    It seems that the term Kabinettsentwurf is a term from political practice. Perhaps a commentary on the Grundgesetz Article 76 – 88 might help. I have got a commentary, but only a small one (Walhalla Verlag). There are three ways a bill can be introduced: by the Bundesregierung (the Kabinettsentwurf is one of these), by the members of the Bundestag (‘aus der Mitte des Bundestages’: usually by the non-governing parties), or by the Bundesrat. Here is a summary of the legislative procedure showing that the cabinet gives its blessing to a bill as a Regierungsentwurf.
    http://www.bund.de/Hintergrund/Deutsche-Demokratie/Parlament/Gesetzgebung/Gang-der-Gesetzgebung-.4703.htm
    So it looks as if Kabinettsentwurf means a bill that has been agreed on by the cabinet and is ready to proceed.
    So I guess, but don’t know: ‘has only now been confirmed as draft legislation by the German cabinet’.
    I couldn’t confirm the existence of the term in Canada. However, something very similar appears to exist in Taiwan:

    http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2003/11/10/2003075273

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