Law Reform

Question 1

Why do we need to reform the law?

Answer 1

Some laws are obsolete meanibg they have lost efficiency without being repealed, reforming the law will:

• keep the law in an accessible state
• allow law to develop in an organised way taking into consideration case law etc
• enable the law to adapt to the changing needs of society
• to prevent confusion which can lead to expense, can put all laws into one.

Question 2

The law commission

Answer 2

Independent law reform body that operates permanently, 4 commissioners work full time and are appointed by Lord chancellor for 5yrs which can be extended, the law commission has many role: referral, refer ideas for reform to chancellor on behalf of the govt, research, focused on pure law it researches areas in detail, consultation paper, sums up current law and interested parties can comment,final report, created suggestions for law reform containing draft bill, parl can chose to change it or not.
It’s key functions are:
- repeal, removes out of date laws that are useless, in 2015 3000 were removed
- consolidate, bring together all existing provisions into one eg equity act
- codify, being together all the laws on a particular topic and change it into a brand new act eg draft criminal code.