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Civil Justice Council

The Civil Justice Council (CJC) is an advisory body which oversees and co-ordinates the modernisation of the civil justice system in England and Wales. It was established in 1998 under the Civil Procedure Act 1997. This section of the Courts and Tribunals Judiciary web site includes information about the CJC’s working groups, consultations, responses and other documents on a variety of subjects, annual reports 2003 onwards, and an archive of information about the CJC’s previous work.

Department of Finance: Law Reform in Northern Ireland

The Department of Finance (DoF) is a department of the Northern Ireland Executive. This section of its web site has information on certain aspects of civil law reform in Northern Ireland, including private family law, trusts and property law, tort, contract law and private international law, which are responsibilities of the Civil Law Reform Division (CLRD) within the DoF’s Departmental Solicitor’s Office. There is information on consultations and current projects, and news of recent developments.

Law Commission

The Law Commission is a statutory independent body created in 1965 to review the law and recommend reform. Its reports, consultation papers and other documents from 1 January 1995 are available on the site. (Some earlier documents are also available, but note that BAILII has a more comprehensive Law Commission database which includes all reports and consultations right back to 1965.) There is information on current projects and on both current and recent consultations. The implementation status of all Law Commission law reform reports is set out in a table appended to the annual report. This table is also accessible via “What happens to our reports?” under the site’s “Our work” tab.

Northern Ireland Law Commission

The Northern Ireland Law Commission, an independent advisory non-departmental public body, was formally launched on 1 April 2008. Its function is to keep the law of Northern Ireland under review and to make recommendations for its systematic development and reform. Publications include programmes of law reform, current projects, law reform reports, annual reports and consultations.

Scottish Civil Justice Council

The Scottish Civil Justice Council was established in May 2013. Its remit is: to keep the civil justice system under review; to review practice and procedure in the Court of Session and in civil proceedings in the sheriff court; to prepare and submit to the Court of Session draft civil procedure rules; to provide advice and make recommendations to the Lord President on the development of, and changes to, the civil justice system; and to advise on any matter relating to the civil justice system as requested by the Lord President. In addition to amendments to Court Rules, the Council’s web site provides information on its committees, including minutes of meetings, annual reports 2013/14 onwards, and current consultations.

Scottish Law Commission

The Scottish Law Commission was set up in 1965 to examine areas where law reform, statute law revision or consolidation might be appropriate, and to make recommendations. All its reports and discussion papers (the latter previously termed consultative memoranda) are available on the web site in PDF. Where applicable there are details of legislation implementing the Commission’s recommendations.