Law Commission

• Full time specialist independant body formed under the ...
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• Law Commission Act 1965 
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• Keeps existing law under review to ensure they are appropriate to modern day society. 

• 5 full time commissioners (a chairman, and 4 other commissioners) supported by a team of lawyers, researchers and administrative staff. 
• Each commissioner is appointed by the Lord Chancellor and Minister of Justice. 
• Chairman must be a High Court Judge (under the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007) 
• Chairman is appointed for 3 years. 
• Commissioners are appointed for up to 5 years from the top ranks of the legal profession. 
• Each commissioner is responsible for a different area of law. 
• Commissioners are supported by a chief excecutive and 20 members of Government Legal Service, two parliamentary draftsmen (to draft proposed Bills) & research assistants. 

• Referral - Topics may be referred on the behalf of the Government by the Lord Chancellor. 
• Research - Law Commission researches areas of law in need of reform and publishes a consultation paper asking for public, government and lawyers' opinions. This is submitted to Lord Chancellor for approval. 
• Consultation - Consultation paper allows interested parties to comment. It describes current laws, sets out problems, and reform options. 
• Report - Commission draw up positive proposals for reform and publish along with the research to give them the conclusion. Often Bill is attached to report. Bill then goes through legislative procedure. 

• Law reform is ROLE OF PARLIAMENT. 
• Law Commission can only make reccomendations on law reform. 
• Section 3 of the Law Commission Act 1965 - function of Law Commission is to keep all law under review with a systematic development and reform. 
• Law Commission must identify areas in need of reform, repeal obselete laws and modernise law. 
• Must consider specific areas reffered to Commission by Lord Chancellor or Government Department. However Commission can choose areas to consider but public must be asked before they decide on a research programme. 
• Law Commission Act 2009 - duty on Lord Chancellor to report annually to Parliament. 
• New protocol means that government departments must provide response within 6 months, and full response within a year. 
• This leads to increased cooperation after the year 1990 when no laws were reformed. 

• Keep all law under review by : Researching area of law in need of reform, issue a Consultation Paper, issuing a Final Report containing positive proposals and a draft Bill. 
• Repeal obsolete laws by forming Statute Law (Repeals) Bill for parliament to pass. 
• Example : Statute Law (Repeals) Act 1998 repealed over 150 complete outdated Acts of Parliament.
• Consolidate Laws - bringing existing statutes all into one Act. Eg Family Laws Act 1996 consolidated domestic violence laws. 
• Not always best as shown in Draft Criminal Code which brings all criminal law into one act. Takes too much parliamentary time to be scrutinized. 
• Codify areas of Law - Single statute containing whole area of law such as criminal law. Criminal Code Act 1985 and the Full Code 1989 were attempts to codify all criminal law. 

Successes of Law Commission.  

• 185 reports, two thirds have been implimented. 
• 90 Acts of Parliament passed containing Law Commission Proposals 
• 18 repealing reports have been implemented. 
• Success example : Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 (new law on manslaughter proposed in 1996) 
• Statute Law (Repeals) Act 1998 repealed over 150 Acts. 
• Family Law Act 1996 
• Costs only £4 million per year to run 
• Law Commission Act 2009 aims to improve implementation rate in the future. 
• Government dont have to act on reccomendations but the Law Commission is most crucial influences on Parliament. 
• Greatest impact on law and citizens. 

Not so Successfull...

• Lengthy delays to responses in government to the Law Commission Report, particularly from 1990-2000. 
• when it was established 85% of proposals came law, this decreased to 50% in following years. 
• No proposals were successful in 1990. 
• Consolidating Acts takes up valuable Parliamentary time to scrutinize.