Law reform template

Question 1

when was the law commission set up?
who does the law commission contain?

Answer 1

• law commission set up in 1965 by the law commission act 1965
• full time body:
  chairman (high court judge)
  4 other law commissioners (highly qualified lawyers)
  support staff who assist research

Question 2

four roles of the law commission

Answer 2

reform
codification
consolidation
repeal

Question 3

reform

Answer 3

-law commission considers areas of law which need reform.
- topics may be referred to by Lord Chancellor on behalf of the government or law commission chooses topics itself and seek governmental approval to draft a report.
- concerned with substantive law eg criminal law
- after reserach it publishes a consultation paper seeking views on possible reform
- consultation paper decsribes current law and sets out the problems and looks at reform options
- after consultation the commission draws up positivie proposals for reform which are presented in a report which also sets out the research led to conclusions.
- an example of reform is the law commission have researched the defence of insanity and automatism and published a report in July 2014

Question 4

codification

Answer 4

• involves bringing all the law on one topic together into one complete code of law
• makes law simpler to find
• the draft criminal code was first published in 1985 however the government never implemented it.
• 2008 the law commission stated it would be concentrating on smaller areas of the code as there was more chance the government would would be prepared to make such reforms for law

Question 5

consolidation

Answer 5

• aim is to draw all existing provisions together in one act
• this is needed becausein some areas of law there are a number of statutes, each of which set out a small part of the total law
• some reas of law that were consolidated has been fragmented by further Acts of Parliament.
• • This happened with the law on sentencing.
• • the law was consolidated in the power of criminal courts act 2000 however within a few months the law changed again by criminal courts service act 2000 which renamed some community penalties and created new sentencing powers
• then in 2003 the criminal justice act 2003 changed much of the sentencing law again

Question 6

repeal

Answer 6

• law commission roles to identify old acts which are no longer used so parliament can repeal these acts
• by 2015 there had been 19 repeals acts
• over 3000 out of date acts of parliament have been repealed
• parts of thousand other acts have also been repealed
• e.g. an act put in place in 1990 to deal with increasing popularity of acid house parties

Question 7

advantages

Answer 7

• legal experts research areas of law. this means they can dedicate more time to it. e.g law commission published a well researched report on non-fatal offences against the person 1993 and again in 2015
• it is non political. often governments bring in laws because they believe it will make them more popular and win them votes. e.g. the area of sentencing where the public have strong views. law commission can look at this area and recommend changes based on their worth not on if the policy is likely to win votes.

Question 8

disadvantages

Answer 8

• the law commission has to wait for the government to bring in the reforms proposed to them. the government is slow to do so and some law commission reports have not yet been made. e.g. an area of law waiting reform is non-fatal offence against the person act. the government issued the consultation paper in 1998 which included the draft bill however the government did not proceed with the bill and the reforms haven’t been made yet
• parliamnetary time. a lot of time is given to financial matters e.g taxation so only limitied time is left for ‘pure’ law reform