CHAPTER 12.

1 THE INFLUENCES ON LAW REFORM AND

VARIOUS INTEREST GROUPS

CHAPTER 12.1
THE INFLUENCES ON LAW REFORM
AND VARIOUS INTEREST GROUPS

LECTURER: N. NEWAZ KARIM (ACCA AFFILIATE)

 CHAPTER 12.1 THE INFLUENCES ON LAW REFORM AND
VARIOUS INTEREST GROUPS

“Necessity is the mother of invention”- this famous proverb is also right for law reform. The
parliament creates and reforms laws when the members feel that there is a need to do so.

With the passage of time, they type of crimes have changed and so, laws also must be prepared and
amended in such way that the criminals are punished, and peace remains in the society.

For example, 50 years ago, nobody even heard about smartphones and 3G internet and so, cyber-
security was not a matter of concern at that time but nowadays, cyber-security and prevention of
cyber-crime has become one of the major jobs of the law enforcement agencies and so, law related
to cybercrime has come to light.

Although the members of the parliament take the steps for law reform, they are influenced by
various ways like comments made by the honorable judges, report of the law commission, public
opinion, pressure groups etc.

THE ROLE OF THE PARLIAMENT

Any law comes into force if and only if that is enacted through the parliament. Before each general
election, the parties show their future plans on law reform in their manifesto. The party that wins
the majority of the seats forms the government and the parliament is fixed for five years now as per
the fixed term parliament act.

The Government shows its willingness to reform laws through the speech of the queen at the
beginning of each session. The speech is written for the queen by the prime minister and the queen
starts law reform proposals by saying “My Government will....”

The proposals given by the government are debated in the house of commons and the house of
lords and must follow the procedure described in the previous chapter. A proposal for law reform
only becomes valid when that gets the support of majority members of the house of commons and
house of lords and the royal assent of the queen.

Even if the law commission recommends a reform in any law, that is enacted only if the procedure
is followed and gets the support of majority members of the house of commons and house of lords
and the assent of the queen.

THE ROLE OF THE JUDGES

If there is any gap in the law and cases related to that law comes to the judges, the judges can
pronounce decisions according to their will on that point as the point is not covered by law. Such
judicial pronouncements are binding as judicial precedents to the lower courts for the cases
having the same material facts.

In some cases, judges make decisions that are equal to new laws. For example, in R Vs R (1991), the
judges declared that a person can be guilty of raping his wife if consent is not taken, although they
are married.

LECTURER: N. NEWAZ KARIM (ACCA AFFILIATE)

 CHAPTER 12.1 THE INFLUENCES ON LAW REFORM AND
VARIOUS INTEREST GROUPS
The judges are bound to follow the wordings of the laws enacted by the parliament and the judicial
precedents (if any).

Sometimes the judges may think that the wordings are hampering proper justice and so, in their
verdicts, they can write the needs to reform the laws concerning the observation section, known as
obiter dicta.

This led to the reform of Year and a Day Rule in 1996 as the rule stated that if a person dies after
one year and a day or longer time from the date of attack on him, the attacker cannot be made
guilty. At the time of passing the law, the limitation of medical knowledge supported this as it was
difficult to find out the cause of death especially in case of proving an attack made a long time ago as
a cause of death made this act a proper one but with the passage of time, medical knowledge
improved a lot and this rule hampered proper justice. After the judges commented on its reform,
the reform took place in 1996.

However, not every recommendation of judges turn into a successful reform as the parliament is
not bound to take those into account.

EFFECT OF PUBLIC OPINION & PRESSURE GROUPS

If the issue is of importance for the public and the public opinion flows in a certain direction, the
parliament has to bow down to the public opinion. Public opinion is very much influenced by the
media and so, laws against fake news should be in place so that no media can divert the attention of
the general public to the direction that is beneficial to the media or its owners. This happens in case
of laws relating to the environment, where the debate between development and safeguarding the
environment comes forward and the public opinion is influenced by the media.

Pressure groups want the citizens and the government to focus on the matter of their interest.
Cause pressure groups work for a cause like Amnesty International that works for upholding
human rights in countries. Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers’ Association (BELA) is a cause
pressure group that had great influence on reforming the environmental law of Bangladesh.

Sectional pressure groups represent the view of a particular class of people of the society. For
example, various trade unions representing the workers and professional associations like British
Medical Association that represents the interests of the doctors.

In 2007, the government was compelled to pass stricter laws against smoking in the public for
public opinion and opinion of the doctors. League against Cruel Sports was successful in
pressurizing the government to enact laws to stop hunting foxes with dogs, which was reflected in
Hunting Act 2004.

However, pressure groups will not always work in support of a law. They can also protest against
any law that goes against their interest. For example, when the government tried to impose
restrictions on trial by juries, pressure groups protested on the ground that this will go against the
right of people to have proper justice.

THANK YOU

LECTURER: N. NEWAZ KARIM (ACCA AFFILIATE)