Advantages of Law Commission model answer

• Section 3 of the Law Commission Act 1965 states ' The objective of the Law Commission is to "identify areas of law where reform is necessary, codify the law, repeal obsolete laws, consolidate and modernise the law". There are therefore many advantages to the Law Commission contributing to law reform.
• Expert Legal Minds

  The Law Commission is made of a permanent group of experts who are non-political from across the Legal Profession, it includes Solicitors, Barristers, Judges and Law Professors. This means that whenever it is called to do research into a Law, the findings are by individuals who have better understanding about whether that area of the law needs to be reformed. It will be able to make meaningful and appropriate suggestions to improve the Law.

  For example it was the report by the former chair David Omrod (leading professor in criminal law), that contributed to the passing of the Fraud Act 2006.
• Successful in influencing the Law

  When the Government has implemented the recommendations of a Law Reform Body this has led to significant and successful changes in the law. Between 1965-1975, 85% of proposals became law. Although its success has decreased over the years, Parliament passed The Law Commission Act 2009 which came into force in January 2010. The purpose of this Act is to improve the rate at which Law Commission recommendations are implemented by the Government and eventually become law. An example of successful proposals can be seen when the Law Commission set out its report into reforming Property Offences in 2002. This led to the creation of the Fraud Act 2006 which has modernised and update Fraud Law. The new Fraud Act 2006 tackles many of the problems with the old law and has updated the law to include cybercrimes which were not contained in the old law.
• Influence the Consolidation of Old Law

  One of the main objectives if for the Law Commission is to consolidate the law. Consolidation of the law means bringing together existing statutory provisions previously located in several different Acts of Parliament into one Act of Parliament, which makes it easier to find and understand. Each year the Law Commission produces around five consolidation bills. A successful consolidation Act was the Justice of the Peace Act 1997 concerning the role of Magistrates. Much of the laws of sentencing were consolidated in the Powers of the Criminal Courts (Sentencing) Act 2000. This advantageous as the Law Commission can help to simplify and modernise the law.
• Thorough approach

  The Law Commission can review areas of Law after being instructed by the Government but can also investigate areas of Law based on own research. This means that they can deal with new or old problems. The LC will do a lot of research and consultation surrounding their focus area of law before they suggest a change and finalise their proposals. Suggestions are informed and justified. The will produce a draft Bill for any laws they consider are in need of reform which saves Parliament time.

  E.g. the 2015 report into non-fatal offences, drew upon earlier reports and Home Office consultations before it made its recommended changes. Also, the LC report which led to the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 was in response to a number of cases involving unsafe business practices which led to staff and customer deaths. This deals with many of the problems which had emerged with the old law through cases.
• Therefore, the Law Commission's influence on Law Reform has numerous advantages which can positively affect the Laws of the country.