REPORTS OF COMMITTEES
| Published date | 01 November 1965 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2230.1965.tb02794.x |
| Date | 01 November 1965 |
REPORTS
OF
COMMITTEES
CRIMINAL
LAW
REVISION
COMMITTEE
:
SEVENTH REPORT
*
THIS Committee which works under the chairmanship of Sellers
L.J.
was only set up in
1959
and its output has to some extent rebutted
the criticisms which Lord Gardiner has from time to time directed
against this method of securing law reform.2
It
is true that up to
date the Reports have been somewhat limited in scope, and have
been largely uncontroversial. The present one, however, running
to thirty pages in length (over fifty if we include Schedules), is
concerned with a number of difficult problems, and though its main
proposal, which is the abolition of the distinction between felonies
and misdemeanours, will certainly be generally acceptable, some
of the others are likely to evoke criticism. All in all this is
certainly the most important report the Committee has
so
far
produced.s
The Committee has wisely taken a liberal view of its terms of
reference, which went no further than to ask for proposals as to
the revisions of the law which should be made in consequence of
abolition of the distinction between felonies and misdemeanours,
should that be recommended. Its consequential proposals will if
carried into effect make at least eight important changes in the
criminal law
or
its administration: and this statement by no means
delimits the scope of the discussion which considers other possible
changes only to reject them, and incidentally raises a number of
other points of interest and substance. Generally it may be said
that the Report is in line with the common sense and liberal
outlook which we have come to associate with this Committee and
indeed with the tradition established by the various
‘‘
Commis-
sions
”
on the criminal law set up during the middle and later years
of the nineteenth century.
It
will be obvious from the foregoing that a detailed considera-
tion of the Report would require an article as long
or
longer than
the document itself: we shall have
to
content ourselves with
a
rather cursory indication of the proposals. Certainly to those
interested in,
or
concerned with, English criminal law and its
administration every page of the Report is worthy of study.
1
Cmnd.
2659.
2
See
hls
speech on law reform in
258
H.L.Deb., col.
1087;
also his Sand
Reading
speech
on
the Law Commissions Bill in 264 H.L.Deb., col.
1140
et
seq.,
passim;
and see above pp. 681-682. He was
of
course concerned
mainly with the slowness
of
this method, a concern which has been shared
by most law reformers.
8
Incidentally it received its remit
on
March 25, 1964, and its Report was
signed on April
25,
1965, which
is
an indication of the speed with which it
works.
689
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