9 work  that  can  most  effectively,  efficiently  and  productively  be  undertaken.    I  am persuaded  that  we  can  do  better  and  more  effective  work  if,  in  the  appointment  of Commissioners and in engaging research staff and consultants, we embrace people from other disciplines.  Wider perspectives can only be advantageous in assessing the present and recommending productive change for the future. The Mission of a Law Commission The longer I am involved in the law (my interest and perspectives have been many and varied over more than 4 decades) the more I am persuaded that the law in my country (and I suspect in many parts of the world) has become too much of an end in itself.   It   is  too  often  inward  looking  and  with  norms,  standards  and  approaches  maintained  for the benefit of those who are already within the group or club and insufficiently directed to the needs and rights of the general populace.  By that I mean that, as an institution, the Courts and Tribunals of our land, and the laws which are administered in them, are not sufficiently accessible or available to the general community.  There are barriers of cost.  There are barriers of time.  There are barriers of ethos and language.  Worldwide there is a need for renewal and improvement on a continuous basis. I  reject  the  notion  that  the  law  is  so  complicated  and  complex  that  we  who  are  its operators  at  various  levels  and  in  sundry  ways  cannot  express  ourselves  more  directly and more openly and that we cannot be more responsive to the needs of the community which are to be served. In  the  rhetoric  of  high  days  and  holidays,  we  speak  of  the  Courts  as  the ‘third arm of Government’, but it is an arm which has insufficiently adapted to contemporary needs, nor which in its approach adequately reflects the changes in technology especially in the last part of the 20^th Century. The law is heartily caught in a time-warp and appears over- influenced  by  how  things  happened  a  century  ago.    I  believe  that  the  overwhelming reason to have a Law Commission, and the hallmark against which we should determine whether  one  is  effective,  is  whether,  in  all  areas  of  the  law  and  its  manifestations,  the