UK Law Commission Annual Report and Future Programs

The Law Commission in England has just released its annual report for 2007-2008 as well as its Tenth Programme of Law Reform.

New projects for the 2008-2011 period will cover adult social care, intestate succession, level crossings legislation, marital property agreements, consumer protection, simplification of criminal law, treason, public nuisance, ransom kidnappings, unfitness to plead and the insanity defence.

The Commission also has a whole list of ongoing programmes carried over from the Ninth Programme of Law Reform, such as research into the law of bribery, corporate criminal liability, expert evidence and insurance contracts.

The aims of the Law Commission are:

• to conduct research and consultations in order to make systematic recommendations for consideration by Parliament;
• to codify the law, eliminate anomalies, repeal obsolete and unnecessary enactments and reduce the number of separate statutes

Canada used to have a Law Commission. Funding for the Commission was terminated by the current federal government in the fall of 2006.