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Law Commission (Key Facts (The LC was established under the Law Commission…
Law Commission
Key Facts
The LC was established under the Law Commission Act 1965. This Act was amended by the Law Commission Act 2009 to improve implementation success.
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After open consultation, they decide on a programme of law reform. The 13th programme will run between 2017 and 2020.
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The LC first carries out research on an area of law. They then consult interest parties and create a preliminary report. Then a final report is produced with a draft Bill on the area of law concerned.
The Law Commission Act 2009 meant that the Lord Chancellor had to present an annual report to Parliament stating what the government are doing to implement LC proposals. The government also must provide an initial response to the LC within 6 months and full response within 12 months.
3 stages - Research, consultation, report + draft Bill.
Law Commission Reforms
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The government can ask the LC to review an area of law but they are not obliged to. The LC decides which areas of law they look at.
In 1996 the Law Reform Year and a Day Rule Act was introduced following LC proposals so an attacker can be convicted of murder even if the victim dies 366 days after the attack.
The rules of Double Jeopardy were changed following LC recommendations in 2001. Billy Dunlop was the first to be retried for the murder of Julie Hogg due to Criminal Justice Act 2003.
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What is it Headed by?
The LC is headed by 5 Commissioners, who are either lawyers, leading academics or judges.
Each Commissioner is head of a team according to their expertise e.g. criminal law, public law.
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Each team is also staffed by lawyers, parliamentary draftsmen, legal researcher etc.
Key terms
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Codification = Where a whole area of law is put into a single statute. E.g. Currently working on Electoral Law which is in 17 different acts.
Repeal = A unit in LC which specialises in looking at repeal of laws. It produces a Bill (known as Statute Law Repeal Bill) which is presented to Government.
Evaluation
Advantages
LC has a great deal of expertise and is widely respected. They are leading lawyers, leading academics and judges. It has been copied around the world e.g. in Australia.
It is independent from the government so can choose which areas of law to examine. It is also non political.
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The LC has a unit which focuses on repealing obsolete/unnecessary statutes. It produces Statute Law Repeal Bills to present to the government. Since 1966 there have been 19 of these.
The LC Act 2009 made it mandatory that the government must give an initial response within 6 months and a full response within 12 which has increased the number of LC reports implemented.
Disadvantages
There has been limited success in codification. E.g. there was a plan to codify all areas of criminal law but it was abandoned because it would occupy too much Parliamentary time.
Too few LC reports were being implemented so a new protocol had to be introduced in the Law Commission Act 2009.
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