Disadvantages 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 disadvantages to the Law Commission contributing to law reform.
• May Not Be Successful (1)

  Whilst the Law Commission has specialist expertise in an area of Law which the Government does not, their reports and guidance are often not passed into Law. This means that the Law Commission's proposals are not always implemented and areas of Law are often not reformed despite a clean report stating how to achieve this. The proposals of the Law Commission may not be in keeping with the Government of the day so it would be unlikely for them to be implemented and the Government may even pass laws which are the opposite of the proposals. Since the Law Commission was established, the number of its proposals that have resulted in reform of the law have significantly decreased. Between 1965-1975, 85% of proposals became law with no proposals being successful in 1990.
• May Not Be Successful (2)

  As of 2019, the Law Commission has approximately a 50% success rate so around ½ of the Law Commission's Reports do NOT become Law. Even when the Law Commission's reports are passed into Law, the Government may only pass certain elements into Law. For example the Law Commission Report in 2006 into the reform of Homicide proposed a reform of Murder, Voluntary Manslaughter and Involuntary Manslaughter. However the Government only reformed Voluntary Manslaughter and the other areas were left with significant problems. Many important reforms suggested by the Law Commission have not been passed e.g. The Law on Non-Fatal Offences has not been modernized and updated despite the Law Commission reporting on it in 1993.
• Lack of Involvement

  The reforms suggested by the Law Commission may not be implemented or if they are then no implemented in full. The Law Commission is made up of 5 members so their proposals may not reflect the view of the majority of legal experts in the land. Changes may be made by Parliament as a bill progresses though the various stages. The Law Commission is not consulted on these amendments. When the Murder, Manslaughter and Infanticide report 2006 was published, the government only used one third of this when they reformed the law on diminished responsibility and loss of control basically ignoring the murder issues which was the most in need of reform.
• Lack of Focus

  The Law Commission have many roles (codification, consolidation, repeals etc.). This may mean that they do not have enough time to concentrate on the most important issues of the day. Their focus is also dictated to them by the government which could be political and based on what is important at the time.
• Lacks Time (1)

  The process of researching an area of law is a lengthy process. It usually takes around 9-12 months to produce a Law Commission report, by which time, momentum to pass a law many have faded as the issue in question has often lost public interest and forgotten about. Eg in Contract law a report was produced in 2019 about virtual signatures and accepting contracts. However, it was side-lined due to Covid-19 and it wasn't been re-visited since despite at the time businesses calling for this change. Parliament doesn't have the time to investigate and reform the Law which is why it delegates this role to others. However due to their own time constraints these Law Reform Bodies often have strict deadlines to work to and this means that they have to produce reports quickly without going into the necessary detail needed to properly research and provide reforms for these areas of law.
• Lacks Time (2)

  The Law Commission Report into reforming all of Homicide Law was completed in 11 months (December 2005 to November 2006) under Government pressure. This was a very short period which included public consultations and feedback to Parliament. After this only sections of the report were passed into Law. Because of the time pressure it can be suggested the report lacked focus in the areas of Homicide it looked at. Parliament is not always keen to find time to pass the Law Commission's draft bills. The Draft Criminal Code for example, codified the whole of the criminal law into one document. Such a large piece of legislation would require hours of Parliamentary time for it to be properly debated and scrutinised so the current Government and previous governments are reluctant to allow, as it would use up the time that they require to pass other Acts.