Law Commission

• Who the law commission are

  • People who identify areas of law for reform
  • Full time agency
  • Law Commission Act 2009 - codify the law, repeal obsolete laws, consolidate and modernise the law
  • Consists of Chairman, 4 Commissioners, Chief Executive and 20 members of the Government Legal System
• What the law commission do

  • Role is to 'keep the law under review'
  • Repeal out of date law and unnecessary acts
  • Codify the law
  • Identify conflicting laws
  • Systematically develop and reform the law
  • Simplify and modernise the law
• Repeal - Identify old acts which are no longer used so Parliament can repeal them
• Consolidation - Bringing together a number of acts on a single topic into one large act
• Codification - Bringing all the law on one topic into one source
• How the law commission suggest reform

  1. Refer - Lord Chancellor may refer topic to the commission, or the commission select areas to research
  2. Research - Research the area of law felt in need for reform, a consultation paper is published
  3. Respond - Draw up plans to reform after response to the consultation paper, often includes a draft bill
• One example of a law passed because of the Law Commission is the Criminal Attempts Act 1981