Sources of Law Law Reform

What do you need to know about law reform?  What is it?  Why is it necessary?  Where do the pressures for reform come from?  Who is responsible for law reform? Focus especially on the Law Commission  How successful have they been?

What is Law Reform  Technically any change to the law is law reform and law reform occurs in all the sources of law – Legislation, Judicial Precedent and European Law  What most understand by the term is an organised review of the law with a view to its improvement.

Why is there a need for law reform?  English law has developed in a piecemeal fashion: there is no code of law unlike in many European countries  Judges can only reform law on individual points that come before the courts  Parliament has many functions and often fails to bring in law reform measures that merely make the law easier to deal with – Draft Criminal Code  Many statutes become obsolete but have not been repealed  Before 1965 only part time reform bodies existed – Criminal Law Revision Committee and law Reform Committee It was felt there was a need for a full time law reform body so the Law Commission was created.

Pressures for reform  Pressure groups – Greenpeace, anti- hunting etc  The media – e.g. Dangerous Dogs Act  Party politics – manifesto before an election  Europe  Law Commission and other law reform agencies

Law Commission  Established by the law Commissions Act 1965  Full time body with High Court Judge as chairman and 4 other members. Role to: Role to:  systematically develop and reform the law  Simplify and modernise the law  Codify the law  Eliminate anomalies  Repeal obsolete and unnecessary enactments

 The Lord Chancellor may refer topics to the Law Commission but most topics are selected by the Commission itself which then seeks governmental approval to draft a report on the topic.  The area of law is researched, a consultation paper published setting out the current law, the problems with it and possible options for reform.  The government then draw up positive proposals for reform after consultation  A draft Bill may be attached to the report showing precisely how the law should be reformed.

Implementation of reports  Overall 70% of these reports have eventually led to legislation  85% in first 10 years then only 50% for the next 10 years  1993 Jellicoe procedure introduced to speed up reform proposals 13 in the year became law.  More reports have been implemented recently 7 in 2003 but there are still many reports awaiting attention.  Reform of the criminal law has largely been ignored by Parliament – no major part of the Draft criminal code produced in 1985 has yet been implemented

Achievements of the Law Commission  Many Acts have been passed  e.g. Occupier’s liability Act 1984  Law Reform (Year and a Day Rule) Act 1996  Over 1500 obsolete statutes have been repealed

Other Law Reform Bodies  The part time Law Reform committee still contributes to the reform of the civil law e.g. Latent Damage Act 1986  Temporary Commissions and committees are used to review one specific area of the law or legal system e.g.  Royal Commission on Police Procedure (Phillips Commission 1981) – Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984  Royal commission on Criminal Justice ( Runciman Commission1993) – Criminal Appeal Act 1995 and Criminal procedure and investigations Act 1996  Judges and business people are increasingly being asked to review areas of the legal system and the law e.g. the Auld review 2001

What sort of questions can come up on this topic.  This topic is not usually examined as a discrete question  It can be part of any question as it is incorporated in all the topics on the Sources of Law paper as part of a question.  Past questions have mainly been focussed on the Law Commission but any of the topic can be examined