(a)

A good legal system cannot keep the same laws and principles that the system was founded on, the
law must adapt to changes in society. If they didn’t laws would become outdated and irrelevant, and
there would be no laws on crimes and things that weren’t around at the beginning of the system.
There are four popular methods of law reform in England and Wales; Judicial change, Reform by
Parliament, Pressure Groups and law reform agencies.

Judges play a part in Law Reform in Judicial Precedent. In some cases they can create important new
laws, as seen in RvR (1991) when a Judge ruled that a husband could be found guilty of raping his
wife. This decision created precedent for future cases and future Judges to follow. Other way is
through Judges disagreeing with the wording of an existing Act of Parliament or because they are
unhappy with their decision because they have to follow a previous precedent. Here, Judges when
giving judgment can draw attention to the need for reform.

Most law reform in the English & Welsh legal system is done by Parliament. The reform can be
categorized under; the Government can repeal old laws, and get rid of them; the Government can
create new laws; the Government can consolidate a law which means all existing provisions are
drawn into one single Act, which makes the Act more accessible and clear to read. About five
Consolidation Bills are passed each year by the Law Commission. Finally law can be reformed in
means of Codification. Codification involved bringing together all the law on one matter into one
source of law.

Pressure groups can also campaign for reforms in the law. Pressure groups can use various methods
and techniques to get their point across, such as: publicity, petitions, lobbying MP’s, demonstrators,
and writing to MP’s/ministers. An example of a successful pressure group is the Snowdrop petition
which managed to get the Government to ban most types of handguns. Reform can also originate
from media pressure campaigns i.e. Steven Laurence (naming and shaming paedophiles”, treaty
obligations from the EU which influence changes in our law, and reforms proposed by other political
parties. Also, when a subject has particular high feelings amongst the public, Parliament may
concede to public opinion and change the law.

Reform also comes from specialized committees and agencies to revise the law and propose
potential revisions. The Criminal Law Revision Committee was set up in 1957, a part time body, to
propose changes to the criminal law. They produced 18 reports up to 1986, and sat monthly until
that date. Many of its smaller and precise recommendations on a certain matter did become laws,
though its wider changes were often never applied due to lack of parliamentary time.

The main law reform body is The Law Commission, which was set up in 1965. 5 people make up the
commission; from the judiciary, the legal profession and legal academics assisted by legally qualified
civil servants. This full time reform body deals and considers with areas of law which are believed to
be in needs of reform.

Apart from full time bodies like The Law Commission, there are also part time committees or Royal
Commissions which are set up to investigate and report one on specific area of law. After their task is
completed they are dissolved. The independent and non-political committee, write a final report,
and pass it to the Government who has to decided whether or not to act on the Royal Commissions
recommendations. Examples of important Royal Commissions include the 1981 Royal Commission
on Criminal Procedure and the Royal Commission on the House of Lords 2000. Another method of
reform is public inquiries, a one off temporary committee to deal with disasters or major events.
Examples include the Hillsborough disaster in Sheffield and the sinking of the Herald of Free
Enterprise.

To conclude, the main methods of reform in England and Wales come from The Government, the
public, the media, reform bodies full time, and part time.

(b)

The Law Commission has been rather hit and miss in its achievements and successes. Orin ally The
Commission founded in 1965 and the main Reform Body, original idea was the idea of codification
(bringing together all the law on one matter into one source of law) which they have failed to do.

The Commission may select areas of reform that it wishes to promote, or have topics referred to
them by the Lord Chancellor on the behalf of the Government.

The first few years of the Law Commission, their success rate was high- their first twenty law reform
programmes was accepted within an average of two years. In this success the Unfair Contact Terms
Act 1977 and The Criminal Attempts Act 1981 can be found. The first ten years of the Commission,
85 percent of its proposals were enacted by Parliament. But the next ten, only 50 percent of its
suggested reforms became law. This lack of success has been blamed on a lack or Parliamentary
time, and an apparent disinterest by Parliament in technical law reform.

Some of the important reforms that have been passed in recent years include: The Land Registration
Act 2002, The Fraud Act 2006, and The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007.

One of the biggest problems is reviewing and reforming Criminal Law. The Law Commission worked
with three leading academics to produce a draft Criminal Code which was published in 1985. The
offences covered by the code were said to cover between 90 and 95 percent of the work of the
criminal courts. Radical indeed. But the code was not considered by Parliament. Due to the large
amount of law covered in it, it was split in to three draft bills, but Parliament never found the time to
debate the proposal. The Law Commission was set up by Parliament to help them review and reform
law, and while smaller and less wide baring recommendations are accepted, Parliament is slow to
implement these recommended reforms by the Law Commission and make them into law. In 2008
the Law Commission announced that they would no longer seek to codify the criminal law and
instead would concentrate on specific area of reform of the law.

While the Law Commission is undoubtedly major player in reform in the law in the English and
Welsh legal system, more than 80 percent of reports do become law- but there are many reports still
to await the Government’s verdict. While this can be accounted for lack of parliamentary time, it is
also due to a lack of commitment to reform of “lawyers law”, while delegated legislation could be
used in some areas of technical law; is it undemocratic if unelected people and groups have the
power to shape our law? Using delegated legislation is undesirable in politically sensitive areas of
law-making.