The law reform agencies are considered to be statutory bodies that act independently and they are tasked by the Government to conduct certain inquiries and subsequently make recommendations that would help in making changes to the existing law in the specific area. The laws in the English legal system are considered to be reformed by the Parliament through legislations and the reforms are necessary because it constitutes change.
Change is supposed to be an important aspect in the society because it helps the society evolve through the updated views and values of the citizens. Therefore, law reforms are essential as these acts as the process that changes or modifies the laws in order to reflect the present values and needs of the modern society. This particular segment elaborates on the role of the law reform agencies in the English Legal System and elucidates why those reforms are necessary. It concludes by summarizing the important aspects of the segments.
Legal reform is considered to imply the changes and improvements that are going to be made within the existing laws so that it assists the individuals by protecting their rights through the new standards and expectations of the society. It is necessary because it is the process or the procedure in which the law is supposed to be modified as well as shaped over time in order to reflect the social values of the society which are crucial and essential. The law is a continuous process therefore, it cannot remain stagnant. The reforms are supposed to be beneficial because it allows the development of the law and this means that the legal system is considered to be effective as it is respected by the society due to its flexibility. The law reform agencies in the English legal system are considered to be assigned to review the particular laws in order to see how the improvements can be made. The four primary methods of law reform are considered to be through the repealing or the removal of the law as such can also be reversed. It can also be done through the creation of the new law and through the consolidation or combination of a number of laws into one. In addition to such, it can also be reformed through codification. This implies that there would be a collection and systematic arrangement of the laws through a subject which would be reviewed in order to be modified and shaped as per the societal standards in the future.
According to the author, it has been stated that, the English Legal System is considered to not have a written Constitution and due to such they operate in a different context. Nevertheless, in spite of such there are enactment of legislations and these are supposed to be regarded as having the status of a constitutional act. There are several committees that are supposed to be set up in order to review the different kinds of laws and the establishment or constitution of these Commissions are supposed to act as realization that it is impossible for the legislature alone to supervise as well as monitor each area of law. The primary function of the Commissions or the law reform agencies would be to take and keep under review all the law of the country. This would be done through the systematic development and reform which would be inclusive of the codification of law as it would be eliminating the anomalies by repealing the obsolete and unnecessary enactments and reducing the statutory instruments as such would lead to simplification and modernization of law. Hence, it can be stated that law reform is an important and crucial aspect in the legal system of the country.
It can be stated that, the Law Reform Commissions act as expert advisory bodies which are supposed to be independent of government and they aim at recommending changes. There are certain specific areas which naturally fall within the scope of law reform commissions and these are supposed to be inclusive of criminal law along with civil law, family law as well as public and administrative law and commercial law. Therefore, the law reform agencies are supposed to offer better prospects as it produces independently from the government. Nevertheless, it can also be stated that the law reform bodies are supposed to act as mere advisory bodies where they have the task to recommend changes in law. Irrespective of such, the implementation or the execution of such changes are supposed to be a matter of the Parliament as they are the ones that decide on the primary legislation by delegating the enforcement powers to the Executive for delegated legislation. Thus, even if the Law reform commission or the law reform agencies recommend changes to certain laws the Executive as well as the Parliament are considered to have the discretion of acting on those recommendations. Therefore, the role of the Law reform agencies is considered to be important as the commission needs to be transparent as they report the changes that need to be made as the law stipulates the changes and due to such the quality of work of the agencies would help in creating an influence over the shaping of laws. The independence of the agencies is supposed to bring credibility which ensures legal support as the individuals in the Commissions are experts in their field and such is crucial for successful law reform. Therefore, the role of the law reform commission and the agencies are supposed to justify the substantiality of law as such creates improvements that are necessary for the evolution of the society.
Conclusion
Thus, in conclusion, it can be stated that, the law reform agencies have a crucial role to play as the law of the country cannot remain static and it needs to be continuous. This needs to be in accordance with the political as well as economic, legal and social developments of the society. Therefore, the agencies have a pivotal role in shaping the legal system of the country or the English Legal System as there are areas of law that are unclear as well as complicated and inaccessible and in order to bring about change or enhance the laws the legal reform body needs be independent.
Issues
The particular case revolved around the conviction of rape as the case tried to decide whether the issue of attempted rape went against s1(1) of the Sexual Offences (Amendment) Act 1976.
Rule
The case was supposed to be regarding the appeal of the defendant regarding his conviction on the issues of attempted rape. The argument was made on the grounds of the marital rape exemption as such was considered to be prevalent under the common law of England. It was supposed to be such due to the reason and the principle that a husband could not rape his wife because of the contract of marriage and such was based upon irrevocable consent. As per the common law system in England, it was laid down that a husband could not be guilty of marital rape that was committed upon his lawful wife because of the mutual matrimonial consent which acted as contract between the wife and the husband. Due to such rule, it was found, that a wife by giving her consent to marriage was supposed to be giving her body to the husband and this gave him irrevocable consent to sexual intercourse. It can be observed through the case of R v Steele (1976) 65 Cr App R 22 where the husband was supposed to be convicted consequently after he had given an undertaking to the court to not molest his wife. However, this particular incident was the first case where the exemption had reached the House of Lords as at the end of the nineteenth century the family judges were supposed to be prepared in making orders for restitution of conjugal rights against the estranged wives. Similarly, in the case of R v Roberts [1986] Crim LR 188 a formal separation was supposed to be in force where the family had been granted protection order as such was sufficient for negating implied consent. Nevertheless, the statements made by hale during the case had been doubted by several judges and other cases followed by R v R case was supposed to be progressively narrowing down the exemption. It can be understood through the case of R v Clarke [1949] 2 All ER 448; 33 Cr App R 216 where the husband was deemed to be fund guilty for raping the estranged wife as it had been stated that a court order for non-cohabitation had revoked the consent. It can also be understood from the case of R v O’Brien [1974] 3 All ER 663 where the subsequent grant of a decree nisi for divorce was supposed to revoke the consent as well. Thus, the cases were considered to be successfully relying on exemptions in order to avoid any conviction of rape but instead of that they were convicted of assault or indecent assault as the courts found that marital defence applied only in case of the crime of rape.
It can be understood that R had married his wife in 1984 and the marriage became strained due to which his wife moved back to the parents’ house. This was resulted through a leaving of the letter where she expressed her thoughts and intentions to seek a divorce. However, a few weeks later R broke into her house when the parents were not present and attempted to force her to have sexual intercourse with him against her will. In addition to this, he also assaulted her and squeezed his hands around her neck. Therefore, the police arrested R and along with such charged him with rape and this contradicted with Section 1(1) of the Sexual Offences (Amendment) Act 1976 of the Offences against the Person Act 1861. However, the couple got divorced in the year 1990. The case was supposed to be reviewed in the European Court of Human Rights and it was considered that there was a breach of the article 7 of the European Convention on Human Rights and such amounted to conviction for the act as it was not a criminal offence when it was committed. However, the rulings were rejected by the ECHR and it was stated that it was a natural foreseeable evolution of law where the exemption of the marital rape in the common law remained in spite of the wives becoming the victims of the crime. This was supported by the Law Commission and was later confirmed by the statute law mentioned above. Therefore, this was a significant case in the history of law reforms as the gravity of the act reformed the law which created the emergence of statute. Nevertheless, despite such, the court in this particular case had upheld the conviction for attempted rape as there was no marital rape exception under the English law or the common law which was prevalent. Therefore, the concept of irrevocable consent of a wife was considered to be an unacceptable concept in the modern times as everybody was seen as equal partners in a marriage. Furthermore, the relationship was also supposed to be between the parties but it did not matter as rape was considered as rape and such was deemed to be unlawful.
Conclusion
Therefore, to conclude, it can be stated that, the changes and the evolution in law helped in creating a substantial penalization as the victims of the crime would be seriously affected due to such exemptions under common law. Thus, the restriction in the effect of proposition is supposed to require proper assessment and evaluation as such are considered to direct the acceptable behavior of the individuals in the society.
In order to understand the module and answer the questions personal growth was necessary as it pushed me towards reaching the highest potential. It also helped me to make a plan that helped me achieve my goal. The personal development helped me in becoming confident as well as mature as a professional as these are supposed to be essential aspects for writing a paper. For answering the questions set forth in this module and in this particular assignment, I used the Gibbs model for reflection as it helped me structure the paper based on six stages. The first was description where I structured the answers by describing a little about the topic. Description is considered to be necessary as it helps in understanding the topic and makes the reader acquainted with the discussions and the deliberations. The second aspect was feelings, where I tried to understand the basic message of the topic and aimed at addressing such. The content of the topic was addressed and it was restated in simple terms. The third aspect was considered to be evaluation where I tried to assess the role and the aim of the topic given to me. This particular aspect also consisted of the different aspects of the topic and arguments regarding the topic as the analytical and critical thoughts had to be identified with a clear line of argument. There were evidences used which were considered to help in strengthening the argument and a balance was maintained through the experience as well as tone in the paper. The fourth aspect was considered to be in relation to the analysis of the discussion in the paper. In this particular step, I had offered the positive as well as the negative aspects of the discussion and I also took account of the points that were made in the previous steps. In addition to this, the identification of factors was also considered to be done which helped in solidifying the argument as proper research had been done by referencing other authors. Therefore, the analysis portion helped in creating a strong conclusion as such was necessary for a strong academic paper. The fifth aspect that was followed was conclusion where strong concluding remarks were provided after the analysis and evaluation of the paper. The sixth aspect was the action plan which was followed as such dealt with the general changes that were supposed to be found appropriate from the discussion. Therefore, throughout the paper, the evaluation and the analysis portion were considered to be made thoroughly through my understanding of the module and this helped me in answering the questions as it demonstrated my knowledge of the modules. It also helped me in understanding and comprehending the subject matter as such developed skills which were necessary to address the problems that were part of the paper. Hence, it can be stated that, through the participation in the module, I had gained legal knowledge about various topics as such was necessary for my personal development. However, despite such, there is a scope of improvement and I intend to achieve such by clearly understanding the intricacies of the topics in the module as such would help in polishing my legal knowledge by creating a strong grasp on the subject.
R v Clarke [1949] 2 All ER 448; 33 Cr App R 216.
R v O’Brien [1974] 3 All ER 663.
R v R [1991] UKHL 12.
R v Roberts [1986] Crim LR 188.
R v Steele (1976) 65 Cr App R 22.
Harvey, Jackie. “Tracking the international proceeds of corruption and the challenges of national boundaries and national agencies: the UK example.” Public Money & Management 40.5 (2020): 360-368.
Khan, Zainab Zaya. “Marital Rape-Needs a Lawful Recognition.” Available at SSRN 4050783 (2022).
Kolade-Faseyi, Itunu. “Spousal rape in a globalized world.” Nnamdi Azikiwe University Journal of International Law and Jurisprudence 9.1 (2018): 107-115.
Moses, Lyria Bennett, and Louis De Koker. “Open secrets: Balancing operational secrecy and transparency in the collection and use of data by national security and law enforcement agencies.” Melbourne University Law Review 41.2 (2018): 530-570.
Partington, Martin. Introduction to the English legal system. Oxford University Press, 2021.
Rey, Dolores, et al. “Role of economic instruments in water allocation reform: lessons from Europe.” International Journal of Water Resources Development 35.2 (2019): 206-239.
Then, Shih-Ning, et al. “Supporting decision-making of adults with cognitive disabilities: The role of Law Reform Agencies–Recommendations, rationales and influence.” International Journal of Law and Psychiatry 61 (2018): 64-75.
Walker, Julia, Alma Pekmezovic, and Gordon Walker. Sustainable development goals: harnessing business to achieve the SDGs through finance, technology and law reform. John Wiley & Sons, 2019.
Walklate, Sandra, Kate Fitz-Gibbon, and Jude McCulloch. “Is more law the answer? Seeking justice for victims of intimate partner violence through the reform of legal categories.” Criminology & criminal justice 18.1 (2018): 115-131.
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