Law Reform

Law Reform

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• Law reform or legal reform is the process of examining existing laws, and advocating and implementing changes in a legal system, usually with the aim of enhancing justice or efficiency.

Current Affairs

• Current affairs are sudden events happening in the world which have an influence on the law and usually leads to change. Examples of this include Dunblane, a shooting at a primary school this led to the banning of ownership of hand-guns. Another example would be Hillsborough where there was overcrowding at a football match which led to the Health and Safety regulations which vouched all seated stadiums. More commonly known, is 9/11 which was a terrorist attack I New York where two planes crashed into the World Trade Centre. This led to the anti-terrorism Crime and Safety Act 2001.
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Current Affairs, continued...

• Pros
• Response to needs of society as it ensures the law is fit for purpose
• Keeps the law up to date, as they identify gaps/loopholes and laws are reformed
• Preventative, as the aim is to ensure such tragedies never happen again
• Cons
• Knee-jerk reaction- not thought through
• Reactionary- only works after something bad happens
• Excessive responses to the disaster can be justified by public outrage

Pressure Groups

• Pressure groups are a collection of people who work together to persuade the government to change the law in certain areas and they can campaign against a change in law
• Some pressure groups are set up to deal with one issue, others are permanent and are campaigning on several issues at any given time. Examples: Green Peace, Father for Justice.
• Insider pressure groups- are groups that are considered 'legitimate' are directly consulted by the Government regarding proposed changes in the law.
• Outsider pressure groups- are not consulted on policy decisions and have to work outside the governmental decision making process and therefore, have fewer opportunities to determine the direction of policy.
• The aim of a pressure group is to convince those in authority that a considerable amount of people share their opinion and that they should listen to them if they want to be elected.
• Examples: Protests, Petitions, Lobbying MPs, Celebrity/media endorsement, shocking images. However the message is lost when groups go too far.
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Pressure Groups, continued...

• Pros
• Raise