The Role and Effectiveness of the Law Commission

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The Role and Effectiveness of the Law Commission

The Law Commission is the main law reform body. It was set up in 1965

by the Law Commission Act It is a full time body that consists of a

chairman, 4 law commissioners, support staff to assist in research,

and 4 parliamentary draftsmen. The Law Commission is an independent,

government-funded organisation, which reviews areas of the law that

need updating, reforming or developing. It makes recommendations to

Parliament, and these recommendations are published in its report

series. The Law Commission helps ensure that laws provide effectively

for the current and future needs of our rapidly changing society.

Their role which is set out in S.3 of this act states that they

should: ‘keep under review all the law with a view to its systematic

development and reform, elimination of anomalies, repeal of obsolete

and unnecessary enactments, reduction of separate enactments, the

simplification and modernisation of the law.’

The advantages of this law commission is that it is a full time body

which shows that it is always in operation, it is the main law reform

body, they have support staff to assist in research, they have a

rotating chair person which shows that they have fresh ideas and

brains and they have a clear role (S.3 of the act). The topics that

the law commission have to consider are referred to by the Lord

Chancellor on behalf of the government. Otherwise the Law Commission

can select an area they feel is in need to reform. There are many

stages of the process of law reform. Firstly the commission have to

research the area of law that they are covering and they have to

suggest wha...

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...roversial.

The current role of the law commission as a whole is as follows: It

reviews the law independently from Government with the aim of securing

benefits for the public, its purpose is also to achieve real benefits

from the public (citizens, organisations and institutions) that live

under and use the law. It can do this in many ways. Firstly it can

make substantive changes to the law to produce fair balance between

various rights and obligations that law creates. It can make the law

simpler by removing any unnecessary procedures, duplications or by

permitting modern technology. It may also make the law more clearer

and more accessible. This leads to prove that people are more likely

to comply with the law if it is simple and clear, it could also result

in fewer disputes and less expense due to less legal advice.

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