THE LAW COMMISIONS ACT, 1965
| Published date | 01 November 1965 |
| Author | Chorley,Gerald Dworkin |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2230.1965.tb02793.x |
| Date | 01 November 1965 |
THE
LAW
COMMISSIONS
ACT,
1965
A.
THE
LAW
COMMISSION
THE
Law Commissions Act,
1965,
may well prove a landmark in
the history
of
English law.
It
provides machinery which, if
effectively used, should enable rules of law, as well those of
common law, equity and
of
the Statute Book, devised to meet the
requirements
of
earlier ages in which needs were different, to be
changed
or
moulded
so
as to provide a flexible and suitable system
for
our own day, and, indeed,
for
periods to come.
Normally, in this
Review,
we should have contented ourselves
with a statute note drawing attention to and commenting upon
the main provisions
of
the Act. However, its importance in the
field
of
so-called lawyer's law, and a number
of
interesting and
perhaps important peripheral matters which arise in connection
with its inception
or
with its passage through Parliament, have
made us feel that something rather fuller than a note is desirable.
For
the purpose
of
promoting the reform
of
the law, the Act
provides for the appointment
of
a body
of
Commissioners, to be
known as the Law Commission, consisting
of
a Chairman and
four
other Commissioners appointed by the Lord Chance1lor.l The
Commissioners are to be
"
persons appearing to
.
.
.
be suitably
qualified by the holding
of
judicial office
or
by experience as a
barrister
or
solicitor
or
as a teacher
of
law in a university."
A
Commissioner may be appointed
for
a term not exceeding five years,
although an ex-Commissioner will always be eligible
for
reappoint-
ment.s The Act also provides that a person who holds judicial
office may be appointed as a Commissioner without relinquishing
that office, but shall not (unless otherwise provided by the terms
of his appointment) be required to perform his duties while he
remains a member
of
the Commission.4
It
is
enjoined
"
to take and keep under review all the law with which
yy
it is
"
concerned with a view to its systematic development and
reform, including in particular the codification of such law, the
elimination of anomalies, the repeal
of
obsolete and unnecessary
enactments, the reduction
of
the number
of
separate enactments
and generally the simplification and modernisation of the law."
There are then spelled out,
for
this purpose, a wide range of duties:
The function of the Commission is very wide indeed.
1
8.
1
(1).
In
this article
we
have
only
considered it necessary to deal with the
Act
in
relation to England and
Wales:
for
Scotland there
is
provided
B
separate Commission; hence the plural in the title
of
the Act.
2
8.
1
(2).
3
8.
1
(3).
4
8.
1
(5).
675
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