Law Reform

Question 1

What created the Law Commission?

Answer 1

The Law Commissions Act 1965.

Question 2

Who make up the Law Commission?

Answer 2

The Chair, 4 other Commissioners, Chief Executive and personnel and 1 or 2 non-executive board members.

Question 3

Who is the Chair?

Answer 3

Either a High Court or Appeal Court judge, appointed for up to 3 years by the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice.

Question 4

Who are the 4 other Commissioners?

Answer 4

Experienced judges, barristers, solicitors or teachers of law. Appointed for up to 5 years although this may be extended.

Question 5

Who are the Chief Executive and personnel?

Answer 5

They consist of a Chief Executive and about 20 members of the Government Legal Service as well as 2 Parliamentary Counsel (who draft the Bills to reform and consolidate the law) and a number of research assistants.

Question 6

What do the non-executive board members do?

Answer 6

Provide support, independent challenge and expertise on issues of government and strategic management.

Question 7

What does s3 of the Law Commissions Act 1965 say the Law Commission’s duty is?

Answer 7

To review all area of law to make systematic reform by:
-Codifying the law
-Consolidating the law
-Repealing the law

Question 8

What is meant by codifying the law?

Answer 8

Bringing together all the laws on one topic into one complete code.

Question 9

Give an example of a time the LC have tried to codify an area of law.

Answer 9

They want to bring all areas of criminal law together into one cohesive Criminal Code. They published the first draft in 1985 but no government has implemented the full code.

Question 10

What is meant by consolidating the law?

Answer 10

Bringing a law that is spread across many cases and statutes into one single act.

Question 11

Give 2 examples of when the LC tried to consolidate an area of law.

Answer 11

-Draft Bill for NFOs in 1998 which still hasn’t been implemented despite a second review in 2015.
-Family Law Act 1996 which tied together and modernised disparate law on divorce and domestic violence. (successful note- ACT not BILL).

Question 12

What is meant by repealing a law?

Answer 12

Getting rid of a law that doesn’t need to exist.

Question 13

How successful have the LC been in getting repeals implemented?

Answer 13

More successful. There have been 19 Statute Law (repeal) Acts as a result of the LC, repealing more than 3000 Acts in their entirety.

Question 14

What are the steps the LC goes through when making reforms?

Answer 14

1) Choosing an issue
2) Research
3) Consultation
4) Report

Question 15

How does the LC choose an issue?

Answer 15

An area of law is either referred to the LC by the Lord Chancellor on behalf of the Government or the LC may choose a topic themselves and seek Government approval. It usually works on substantive area of law (crime, tort, family etc).

Question 16

What happens in the research stage?

Answer 16

The LC looks at cases, statutes and academic articles to understand the current state of the law.

Question 17

What happens in the consultation stage?

Answer 17

The LC publishes a consultation paper after the research is done. This contains a description of the current law, explain the problems and suggest options for reforms (often explaining how law in other countries handled the problems). People then respond to this paper with their views.

Question 18

What happens in the report stage?

Answer 18

Based on the responses, the LC make a proposal for reform. The report explains the research and consultation and usually contains a draft Bill that lays out the exact way the new law should be formed (Parliament still need to actually pass it to make it law).

Question 19

How has the success rate changed over time?

Answer 19

In the first 10 years, 80% of recommendations were implemented.
In the second 10 years, 50%.
In 1990, 0%.
In 2016, the LC were at an overall 66% implementation rate from 1965-2016.

Question 20

What measures were put in place to implement more recommendations?

Answer 20

Law Commissions Act 2009 amended the 1965 Act so that the Lord Chancellor must report to Parliament once a year to follow up on reports.
Since 2010, there has been a special parliamentary procedure to implement LC reports that are ‘uncontroversial’. 6 Acts have been passed through this process.

Question 21

What are some of the LC’s biggest implementations?

Answer 21

Coroners and Justice Act 2009, Consumer Rights Act 2015 and Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015.

Question 22

What are the advantages of the LC?

Answer 22

-Lots of experts from different areas of law
-Consult many judges, barristers and academics so recommendations are well informed
-They are independent from Government so focus on real issues as there is no political pressure on them to do certain things.
-Can look at a wide area of law and change it easily in one go so can modernise the law quite quickly.