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Government. If it were going to be an optimal instrument for influencing the
Government, it would become part of the Government. The paradox is that it
would then lose much of its value.
Lack of Expertise and Resources for Evaluation of Law Commission Reports
350. There is a further factor in the relationship. When the Ministry of Justice was
created and the Department for Courts and the Department of Corrections hived
off it, the Law Reform Division was also effectively collapsed. Thus the
capacity of the Ministry of Justice to carry out law reform is reduced from
former days and its depth of expertise has been reduced as well. The political
emphasis on law and order issues in recent times has been constant and
insistent, and much of the resources in the Ministry must be devoted to
legislation designed to implement the Governments law and order policy.
351. This leaves the Ministry with scant resources for some of its other
responsibilities and, in particular, it now lacks the expertise to evaluate some of
the recommendations contained in Law Commission Reports. The question
must be asked, why should the Ministry evaluate the advice of the Commission?
If Ministers are uncertain and ask for that advice, obviously such work must be
done. But it ought not be assumed that it is necessary unless Ministers ask for
it.
352. One question that arises is whether it is sensible for the Law Commission to go
through an elaborate set of procedures, including consultations, to produce a
Report only to find that it is unacceptable to the Government. But what is
worse is to find out not that a Report is unacceptable, but that it languishes
within the Government unaddressed simply because there are no analysts that
the Government has, or resources that it has available, to devote to deciding
whether Ministers should take up the proposal or not.
353. It is important to improve the relationships between the Law Commission and
Government Departments. The Law Commission has, in recent years, forged a
positive relationship with the Ministry of Commerce, now the Ministry of
Economic Development. The Commission has contributed high quality work
on proposals to change the law in e-Commerce and insolvency. Legislation in