In my last blog post, we looked at what the Law Commission is, its main principles and its composition. In this blog post, we will be exploring this further, asking how their proposals for law reform start and the different stages in the process leading up to them presenting their suggestions to Parliament. However, we will start by quickly reviewing what the Law Commission’s role is and its aims.
The Law Commission is an independent statutory body that focuses on law reform. It is the term “independent” that is key here, as it means that they operate without any political influence. They are not chosen by whichever party is in power and cannot be removed by them. This means that they are safe to suggest whichever projects they believe are most important, rather than ones to suit a political agenda. It also prevents them from starting a project under one government, only to be blocked by the next one.
The Law Commission aims to codify the law to make it fair, modern, simple and cost-effective. Many statutes are difficult for the average person to understand, particularly the older ones where archaic language is in use. In addition, some areas of law are governed by common law; that is, law from cases rather than there being a statute for them. This can then be harder to follow, not to mention find in the first place, making the law inaccessible to most.
The Law Commission tries to update and draw together parts of the law to make it more coherent. It does this by carrying out research and consultations to make a proposal for reform, which will then be presented to Parliament.
Stages of Law Reform
Initiation
There are five stages to law reform, the first of which is initiation, which occurs after the Law Commission has chosen an area of law for review. The Law Commission considers the proposed law reform and decides on the extent and scope of the project. It will do this in coordination with the relevant government department.
Pre-Consultation
Once the project has been outlined, the Law Commission carries out an investigation into what does and doesn’t work about the area of law in question and what would be needed to improve it. To help with this, they may look at other systems of law and note how they approached similar defects in the law. Even if this is not the method that ends up being used, it is still a good starting place to get some ideas from.
Despite this being the pre-consultation stage, the Law Commission may nevertheless approach some groups that have a particular interest in the area under review. These could be interest groups with ties to the subject or specialists that focus on it. The Law Commission will then produce new documents setting out the main issues that will be reviewed and the scope that will be covered.
Consultation
The third stage of law review is consultation. At this point, the Law Commission will write a consultation paper inviting comments. The paper will include how the law currently stands and what the problems are with this. It will also set out the proposed solutions to these defects and how they would expect them to work, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of each suggested solution.
The consultation paper will be circulated to organisations and individuals that would stand to be affected by any reform, as well as groups that focus on this particular area of law. It will also be sent to the media. Anyone can view and respond to a consultation paper, regardless of whether it has been sent to them. Comments from members of the public are taken into account, as they can give a different perspective on the same issues.
Policy Development
When the consultation is complete, all the responses are gathered together and the Law Commission will go through them to review their proposed reform. Adjustments can be made at this point and new papers circulated. A draft Bill is sometimes created and sent out for consultation, once again inviting comments.
Reporting
Finally, the Law Commission will write a report to the Lord Commissioner and the relevant Secretary of State. This will give their proposals for reform and the reasoning behind it. They may also include a draft Bill in the report.
Wrapping Up
As you can see, the Law Commission carefully considers all of their proposals for law reform before making the final report. This helps to ensure that their recommendations fit with their aims and improve the law. In my next blog post, we will be looking at the role of the Crown Prosecution Service, so come back in two weeks for that!
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