Law Commission

• Problems with other methods of Law Reform:

  • They focus on individual laws that need changing - they don't consider the law as a whole.
  • The government will have a political agenda to improve certain areas like tax, education, health - they don't consider areas that aren't a focus of public concern but do still require change, such as contract law.
• Problems with other methods of Law Reform:

  • Public opinion or media reports are not always based on factual information - sometimes the public lack information or expertise on the topics they campaign for.
  • Pressure groups can cancel each other out if they have opposition - this can lead to a lack of clarity on where progress is needed.
• The Law Commission are an independent group whose sole purpose is to 'keep all law under review'.
• Were se up by the Law Commission Act in 1965, and work full time to:

  1. Receive and consider proposals for Law.
  2. Reform and consult interested parties.
  3. Codify and Consolidate areas of law in the UK.
  4. Put forwards proposals for reform of the law.
• Consolidate:

  • The aim is to draw all existing provisions together in one Act.
  • This is needed because in some areas of law here are a number of statutes which set out small parts of the overall law. This can make it confusing as the law may be contained in various different sources.
• Consolidate:

  • The Law Commission will highlight areas of the law where this has happened, and will propose a new law which brings together all of the existing parts into one Act of Parliament.
  • A specific example is the Sentencing Act 2020 which collated together 65 Acts of Parliament on sentencing of offenders.
• Codify:

  • This is similar to Consolidation, in that all the existing law on one area is brought together into one Act of Parliament.
  • However, the difference is that codification also includes bringing together any statutes as well as judge made law created in cases.
  • This was done with the Draft Criminal Code 1985, which attempted to bring all criminal law aspects into one law - however this has not yet been passed into law.
• Repeal:

  • One of the roles of the Law Commission is to identify old Acts which are no longer used.
  • The Law Commission has been very successful in this. By 2015 there had been over 3000 out-of-date Acts completely repealed in addition to thousand of sections of Acts.
  • A specific example is the Statute Law (Repeals) Act 1998 which got rid of over 150 outdated laws that are not used.
• Who are the Law Commission?

  The Law Commission consists of five full-time commissioners. These are:

  • The Chairman (a High Court or an Appeal Court judge) appointed for up to three years.
  • Plus four commissioners are experienced judges, barristers, solicitors or teachers of law.
• Who are the Law Commission?

  • The Commissioners are supported by a Chief Executive and about 20 members of the Government Legal Service.
  • Two Parliamentary Counsel draft the Bills to reform and consolidate the law.
  • There are also a number of research assistants.
• Process of the Law Commission:

  • Referral
  • Research
  • consultation
  • Proposals for reform
  • Draft Bill
• Referral - topics may be referred by the Lord Chancellor on behalf of the Government, or it may itself select areas in need of reform.
• Research - The Law Commission researches the area of law in need of reform and published a consultation paper seeking views on possible reform.
• Consultation - A consultation paper will describe the current law, set out the problems and look at options for reform.
• Proposals for reform - A report is published which lays down the proposals as well as the research conducted. This is made public and the government will review it.
• Draft Bill - The report will include a draft version of how the new law should look to make it east for Parliament to act on - however only 1 in 3 become law.
• Advantages of Law Commission:

  • Independent and free of government control, so is non-political.
  • They have been proven to be successful and have lead to the law being more orderly as well as important changes to the law (e.g. Computer Misuse Act 1990).
• Advantages of Law Commission:

  • They are legally trained and have expertise in certain areas.
  • Their reports are thorough as they take a lot of time to complete research.
• Disadvantages of Law Commission:

  • It can take years to produce a report - by which time the issue needing reform may have disappeared or changed.
  • They review 20-30 areas at one time so some research may lack focus.
• Disadvantages of Law Commission:

  • Only one third of recommendations are taken on by the government - so two thirds are ignored, despite having taken years to prepare reports (such as with the Draft Criminal Code 1998).