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significant statute a year is not really good enough for a body of this
character.
301. Nineteen of the Law Commissions Repor ts have been self-initiated by the
Commission. Of these, five Reports have been implemented, 10 Reports have
not been implemented, three did not contemplate any legislative or other change
and one is too recent to classify.
302. The remaining 27 Law Commission Reports have arisen from Ministerial or
other Government reference. Of these, 17 Reports have been implemented, six
Reports have not been implemented, one did not contemplate any legislative or
other change and three are too recent to classify.
303. Only broad trends may be gleaned from the statistics. Significantly, self-
initiated Reports have been much less likely to be implemented, by legislation
or otherwise. Only five out of 19 self-initiated Reports have been implemented
(26 percent), compared to 17 out of 27 Reports arising from Ministerial
reference (63 percent).
304. Self-initiated Reports have also been slightly more likely to be prepared for use
as a resource only, without contemplating any legislative or other change. There
are three such self-initiated Reports and just one arising from Ministerial
reference.
305. In the evaluators view, the power to self-initiate should not be taken away
from the Law Commission. But the record demonstrates that the Law
Commission should be slow to exercise that power and devote its resources
to references of its own initiation, since the strike rate for adoption of such
Reports is low, compared to that of Reports arising from Ministerial
reference. No statutory change is recommended concerning the power of self-
initiation. Its exercise remains with the Commission. Neither is it suggested
that any criteria can be usefully defined in exercise of the power. But it ought to
be used only as a last resort.
306. The current President of the Law Commission, the Hon Justice Baragwanath,
has made several attempts to improve the rate of implementation of Law