27
Law Revision Commission
105. In December 1965 the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General, J R Hanan,
implemented the majority of the recommendations in his publication The Law in
a Changing Society and restructured the LR Committee into the Law Revision
Commission (LR Commission). The LR Commission initially consisted of
members of the former LR Committee plus Turner J. After this transition period
the LR Commission consisted of 16-20 members, all lawyers, drawn from
Parliament, the judiciary, the legal Departments of State, the practising and
academic branches of the legal profession, and the Chairs of each Standing Law
Revision Committee. The Minister of Justice chaired the LR Commission.
106. The LR Commission was to refer work to four Standing Committees, created in
July 1966. The four Law Revision Committees were:
· Contract and Commercial Law;
· Property Law and Equity;
· Torts and General Law Reform (until 1982);
· Public and Administrative Law.
107. In 1971 a Criminal Law Committee was added. In 1982 the Evidence Law
Reform Committee superseded the Torts and General Law Reform Committee.
The Committees were seen as more specialised, more streamlined and better
supported.19
108. The maximum membership of each Law Reform Committee was eight or nine,
and membership was usually a maximum of three terms of three years. As a
matter of policy the Chairman of each Law Reform Committee was a senior
lawyer in private practice (except for the Public and Administrative Law Reform
Committee).20 The practice that judges were not appointed, which existed in
relation to the LR Committee, did not continue in relation to the Law Reform
Committees.
19
B J Cameron, above n4, 127.
20
B J Cameron, above n4, 127.