law commission

• set up in 1965 - under the law commissions act 1965 and the law commissions act 2009

  full time body and consists of a chairman - sir peter fraser

  four other law commissioners - highly qualified lawyers - support staff to assist with research
• main responsibility is set out in s3 of the act :

  'to keep under review all the law with a view to systematic development and reform'
• review and reform process

  
  

  1.topics may be referred by the law commission on behalf of the government / law commission select areas in need of reform + seek governmental approval to draft a report on them

  
  

  2. law commission will research the area of law - thought to be in reform - identifies any defect of the current law - looks at other systems - how they deal with similar problems - approach interest groups + specialists in the area - produce preliminary scoping + issues papers
• review and reform process

  
  

  3. publishes a consultation paper - setting out in detail the existing law and its defects - giving arguments for and against the possible solutions - getting feedback - circulated to all interested individuals, organisations, media

  
  

  4. commission will then draw up positive proposals for reform - presented in a report format which set out the research that led to the conclusions

  
  

  5. draft bill attached to the report - intention that this is the exact way the new law should be formed - has to go through parliamentary stages if it id to become law
• codification

  
  

  bringing together all the law on one topic from previous statutes and common law - into one source

  the police powers and criminal evidence act 1984 - codified the law on police powers

  
  

  law commission spent many years writing a draft criminal code - aimed to include the main general principles of criminal law

  first published in 1985 - no government has implemented it

  2008 - law commission stated that it would be focusing on smaller areas of the code - more chance the government would be prepared to make reforms to the law
• consolidation

  
  

  bringing together all existing statutory provision on a particular topic into one parliament - needed as some areas of law - number of statutes

  
  

  law on sentencing offenders under 17 was amended more than 10 times + was necessary to consult each relevant act - full picture of the law

  
  

  powers of the criminal courts (sentencing) act 2000 - drew all the sentencing of young offender's act together
• repeal

  
  

  law commission's role is to identify old acts - no longer used - parliament can repeal these acts - remove all obsolete laws

  
  

  'tidying up' of the statutes - help to make the law more accessible - over 3000 out of date statutes have been completely repealed

  
  

  the double jeopardy act was recommended to be repealed by the law commission - through the criminal justice act 2003