5 full time comissioners - chairman high court judge
Set up by the law commission act 1965
The law comission duties
Keeps all English law under review
It repeals bad and obsolete law
Modernises and simplify the law
Codify and consolidates areas of the law
Consolidate - put all existing acts in one new act
Codify - to create a new code of law, stating underlying legal principles trying to improve the law (changes law)
However the law comission can't change the law on its own: only parliament can do that
The government decided whether or not to enact the proposals.
Law comission procedure
The comissioners are asked to research a topic by the lord chancellor or chooses one itself
It consults with relevant parties and does the research
Example of consolidation
Powers of the criminal courts (sentencing) act 2000 - consolidated the provisions on the sentencing of young offenders.
Example of codification
Theft act (1968) didnt really work left gaps in the system - theft act (1978) to plug gaps in the new theft code - taking off without payment for example no paying at a restaurant when finished
Other cases by law commission
Fraud act (2006) - reformed the law on fraud (criminal)
Land registration act (2002) - which modernised and simplification the method of registering land (civil)
Corporate manslaughter and corporate homicide act (2007)
Royal commission
The government set it up to look at particular topics of concern to try change the law.
Often used in disasters such as at hillsborough
Consist of experts and ordinary people often headed by judges
For example the royal commission on criminal procedure 1981 -passing of PACE 1984
Criminal law revision committee
Its a permanent body that issues report on a variety of criminal law - BUT not met since 1985
Law reform committee
Part time body made up of judges lawyers and academics
Only look at civil law abduction suggests reforms
Eg occupiers liability act 1957
It lacks research facilities but it is permanently funded by the lord chancellors department
Sucesses of law commission
High average sucess rate and enjoyed great success in its first ten years - 85% proposals made law
The work of the law commission has lead to some very important new acts of parliament
The law commission has been successful in repealing old laws
The law comission has successfully consolidated some areas of statute law
Failure of the law commission
The law commission had had a much lower success rate in some decades
It has been quite unsuccessful in codifying areas of law
Parliament is not necessarily very interested in legislation - it doesn't gain them votes
There may not be enough time to legislate
The law commission has limited resources resources
Very little reform of the criminal law - very few reports implemented
In 1990 no law commission reports were enacted which shows either lack of need for law reform or lack of parliamentary time/interest
Overall the success rate has dropped from 85% to 50% showing proposals are less relevent