Tort Law - Parliamentary Law Making Flashcards
What are the 4 influences on Parliament?
- Law Commission
- Public opinion / the media
- Pressure groups
- Political influence
The Law Commission: what is it and what is their role?
The Law Commission is a statutory independent body, it was established by the Law Commission Act 1965
s3(1) Law Commission Act 1965: the role of the Law Commission is to ‘keep under review all the law’.
The aim of the Commission is to ensure that the law is fair, modern, simple and effective.
The primary role of the Commission is to research areas of law that it believes need reforming and suggesting appropriate reforms in light of their research.
The Justice Secretary can refer areas of law for research and review on behalf of the Government, or the Commission may identify areas itself that they believe need reforming and seek governmental permission to draft a report on the area.
Law Commission: when the Commission has researched a particular area of law what do they issue? What is the law Commission report?
They issue a consultation paper. This document will describe the current law, outline the current issues, identify different possible options for reform and invite feedback from relevant parties.
Once the Commission has received feedback upon the consultation paper, they will draw up a definitive proposal for reform of that area in the form of a report.
Law Commission report: this document contains the Commission’s formal proposals for reform; a draft bill including the new proposals will also be attached to the report.
Law Commission: what is the example of a Law Commission report?
Following consultation in 1999 the Law Commission produced the ‘Fraud report’ 2002 which contained a draft bill.
This bill proposed removing the eight offences of deception created by the Theft Acts 1968-96 and abolishing the common law crime of conspiracy to defraud.
In their place the Law Commission recommended the creation of two new statutory offences - one of fraud, and one of obtaining services dishonestly. This recommendations were brought in by the Fraud Act 2006.
