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The Law Commission
You are here: BAILII >> Databases >> The Law Commission >> The Fortieth Annual Report of the Law Commission (Report) [2006] EWLC 299(9) (14 June 2006)
URL: http://www.bailii.org/ew/other/EWLC/2006/299(9).html
Cite as: [2006] EWLC 299(9)

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    PART 9
    EXTERNAL RELATIONS
    9.1          The Law Commission greatly values its strong links with a variety of organisations and individuals committed to reforming the law. We are indebted to those who give feedback on our consultation papers, and who provide input and expertise at all stages of the process of making recommendations to Government.

    9.2          In our published reports, consultations, issues and discussion papers we list the assistance and support we receive from a wide range of people. It would not be possible to list everybody that provides guidance or feeds in views here. In addition to our published work, the Law Commission plays a wide role in the national and international business of law reform. In particular we have worked with:

    PARLIAMENT AND MINISTERS
    9.3          The Department for Constitutional Affairs (DCA) is our sponsor Department.

    9.4          The Chairman and Commissioners have met with a number of Ministers during the reporting year to further development of projects. These include:

    9.5          We also met with the following Parliamentary Bodies:

    CONSULTEES AND STAKEHOLDERS
    9.6          We receive help from a broad range of people who are thanked in the respective consultations and reports issued by the Law Commission. During the course of this year, we were particularly grateful to a number of academics and the judiciary who provided input. Many practitioners and legal associations working in specialist and general fields have given time and support to further our awareness of various areas of work.

    9.7          On the homicide project, we were particularly supported by a number of victims groups, representatives of the police and the Director of Public Prosecutions. We have worked with industry representatives and groups on a number of projects. The housing projects have relied on representatives of several tribunals, tenants, landlords and Ombudsmen organisations feeding in thoughts and experiences.

    SEMINARS, LECTURES AND CONFERENCES, ETC
    9.8          Members of the Law Commission are frequently invited to attend and speak at seminars and conferences. While we cannot fulfil every request, we try to be as involved as possible in expanding general knowledge about law reform, and engaging people in the processes by which the law is improved. The Chairman has taken part in a variety of events. These include:

    9.9          Hugh Beale has taken part in the following lectures, conferences and seminars:

    9.10          Dr Jeremy Horder attended a conference on French Criminal Law held at Grays Inn; a training seminar organised by the Judicial Studies Board; meetings of the Criminal Justice Council; meetings of the Judicial Studies Board Criminal Committee and met representatives of the Sentencing Guidelines Secretariat.

    9.11          Stuart Bridge gave a lecture on Reforming the Law of Easements to the Property Bar Association.

    9.12          In January 2006 Professor Martin Partington was appointed to the DCA Taskforce on Public Legal Education, to which the Commission's work on Renting Homes and Housing Disputes is particularly relevant.

    9.13          Stuart Bridge is now a member of the Civil Justice Committee of the Judicial Studies Board (JSB), and he attended a training seminar for judges in the specialist jurisdictions, organised by the JSB, as an observer.

    9.14          Both Martin Partington and Sir Edward Caldwell contributed chapters to a book on law reform produced for the Australian Law Reform Commission 30th Anniversary. Martin also wrote an academic piece on the relationship between Law Reform and Access to Justice that was published in the Winder Yearbook of Access to Justice (a leading Canadian journal).

    9.15          A paper by Stuart Bridge on The Contribution of the Law Commission to the Reform of Commercial Leases was presented by Julia Jarzabkowski and Joel Wolchover at a conference on Landlord and Tenant Law at New College, Oxford.

    SOCIO-LEGAL RESEARCH
    9.16          The Commission often uses socio-legal, economic and empirical research to ensure that our recommendations to Government are thoroughly considered with sound evidence. Where possible we use existing research, but where funds permit, we sometimes commission external researchers.

    9.17          The Cohabitation project has commissioned and sponsored research from several sources. Lynda Clarke (Centre for Population Studies, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine) has been commissioned to provide data from the Office of National Statistics Longitudinal Study, a 1% sample of the population which links all Censuses from 1971 to 2001 with vital registration data. We have also supported research by Prof. Anne Barlow and Dr Carole Burgoyne (University of Exeter), investigating the impact of the Department for Constitutional Affairs' Living Together Campaign, and work being conducted in the next round of the British Social Attitudes Survey, with Alison Park. We are also supporting a student-conducted public opinion survey run by Prof Gillian Douglas (University of Cardiff) and Cathy Williams (University of Sheffield) relating to remedies for spouses and cohabitants on the death of one partner.

    9.18          In connection with the Commission's review of the law of murder, the Commission had the great benefit of two pieces of socio-legal research. Professor Barry Mitchell of Coventry University conducted a public survey on mandatory sentencing in cases of criminal homicide. The aim of the survey was to determine whether there appears to be any evidence of the lilely support amongst members of the public for the mandatory sentencing of persons convicted of unlawful homicide. The results of Professor Mitchell's research can be found in Appendix A of the Commission's consultation paper "A New Homicide Act for England and Wales?"

    9.19          The Commission commissioned Professor Ronnie Mackay of De Montfort University to undertake an empirical study of convictions for infanticide in the period 1989-2002. We expect to be able to publish the results of Professor Mackay's research as an appendix to our final report.

    9.20          We are very grateful to both Professor Mitchell and Professor Mackay for the invaluable contributions to the Commission's review of the law of homicide.

    9.21          The public law team has sought to access socio-legal learning by seconding leading socio-legal scholars as visiting academic consultants. Since, respectively, February 2005 and January 2006, Professor Dave Cowan and Alex Marsh have devoted two days a week each to the team's projects.

    9.22          The public law team also received a report by Caroline Hunter and Judy Nixon of Sheffield Hallam University on Australian Tenancy Tribunals which will be published together with background material on the Housing Disputes project.

    LAW COMMISSIONS IN THE BRITISH ISLES
    9.23          We work closely with the Scottish Law Commission (SLC) on various projects. Over the course of the year, we have collaborated on insurance contract law. We have been greatly assisted in our work on cohabitation by discussions with the SLC. We remain in regular contact with the SLC concerning the two Commissions' trust law work.

    9.24          Much of the Law Commission's work on statute law revision is conducted jointly with the Scottish Law Commission and many of the repeal candidates contained in Statute Law Revision Reports extend to Scotland. Indeed because Statute Law (Repeals) Acts extend throughout the United Kingdom and the Isle of Man, the Law Commission liaises regularly on its repeal proposals not only with the Scottish Law Commission but also with the authorities in Wales (the Office of the Secretary of State for Wales and the Counsel General to the National Assembly for Wales) and with the authorities in Northern Ireland and in the Isle of Man. Their help and support in considering and responding to the repeal proposals is much appreciated.

    9.25          We were pleased to host the first meeting of the Chairs and Chief Executives of the four Law Commissions in the British Isles on 20 February 2006. Attendees included the Law Commission's Chairman, Sir Roger Toulson and Chief Executive, Steve Humphreys; the Scottish Law Commission's Chairman Lord Eassie and Chief Executive, Michael Lugton; the Law Reform Commission of Ireland's President, Mrs Justice Catherine McGuinness and Commissioner Patricia Rickard-Clarke; and the Law Reform Advisory Committee for Northern Ireland's Chairman, Mr Justice Declan Morgan and Secretary, Clare Irvine.

    INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
    9.26          We have continued to receive international guests at the Law Commission, and to visit colleagues around the world. Among the guests we have received or met are:

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URL: http://www.bailii.org/ew/other/EWLC/2006/299(9).html