New law reform programme promises profound change, says Law Commission
The Law Commission today reveals its new programme of law reform projects. The projects – which make up the Commission’s Eleventh Programme – touch on many areas of life, from elections to electronic communications, from offences against the person to the regulation of taxis. Together, they have the potential to deliver reforms that could have a profound and far-reaching impact on all our lives.
Ideas for the Commission’s Eleventh Programme were generated through wide and thorough consultation with people and organisations across England and Wales, including parliamentarians, government officials, the judiciary, legal professionals, and members of the voluntary and commercial sectors, as well as private citizens.
The Right Honourable Lord Justice Munby, Chairman of the Law Commission, says: “Our Eleventh Programme brings together a diverse range of law reform projects, each of which is important and highly relevant to our lives today. We are grateful to all those who responded to our consultation for their suggestions, and proud of the programme they have enabled us to build.
“The Law Commission exists solely to review the law and recommend reforms to make it fair, modern, accessible and cost-effective. Each area of law we will examine in the Eleventh Programme has been identified as being flawed and at risk of creating confusion and injustice. Each demands review and reform.”
More than 200 proposals were received during the consultation, from which the Law Commissioners selected 14 projects. The Commission will conduct this work over the next four years, alongside projects carried over from previous programmes and those referred to the Commission by Ministers.
The Eleventh Programme projects are:
- Charity law, selected issues – examining a range of issues concerning the constitution and regulation of charities and their activities.
- Conservation covenants – investigating the case for a new statutory interest in land that would enable a conservation obligation to be enforcable against a landowner by someone who is not a neighbour.
- Contempt – reviewing the law on contempt to take into account use of the internet and other technologies and to ensure courts have the powers they need to deal with contempt in the face of the court.
- Data sharing between public bodies – clarifying the existence and nature of legal obstacles to data sharing.
- Electoral law – rationalising the complicated framework of rules governing electoral processes and take account of advances in technology.
- Electronic communications code – considering whether the Code can be made more transparent, user-friendly and efficient in resolving disputes.
- European contract law – assessing the impact of the EC-generated optional instrument that sets out which laws apply to contracts made between businesses (and between businesses and consumers) from different member states.
- Family financial orders – considering how court orders for financial provision following divorce or the end of a civil partnership and orders concerning financial arrangements for children are enforced.
- Misconduct in a public office – simplifying and clarifying this common law offence, and ensuring the law takes into account the fact that functions traditionally considered to be public in nature are now often discharged by private individuals and volunteers.
- Offences against the person – restructuring the law, probably by creating a new hierarchy of offences, and modernising and simplifying the language used to define offences against the person.
- Rights to light – assessing whether this area of law correctly balances a right to receive light against the right of neighbours affected by it to develop their land; including examining the relationship with planning law and the range of remedies available where a right is interfered with.
- Taxis and private hire vehicles – reviewing and simplifying the existing complex and separate regulatory systems, removing geographical inconsistencies and modernising to reflect advances in technology.
- Trademark and design litigation, unjustified threats – considering whether to repeal, reform or extend four provisions that impose liability to pay damages on the makers of an unjustified threat of intellectual property litigation.
- Wildlife – modernising the law on wildlife management, simplifying it and making it easier to understand.
The Eleventh Programme of Law Reform is available on the Commission’s website at www.lawcom.gov.uk
Notes for Editors
The Law Commission is a non-political independent body, set up by Parliament in 1965 to keep all the law of England and Wales under review, and to recommend reform where it is needed.
For more information on the Eleventh Programme, visit www.lawcom.gov.uk
For all press queries please contact:
Phil Hodgson, Head of External Relations 020 3334 0230
Jackie Samuel 020 3334 0216
Email: communications@lawcommission.gsi.gov.uk