⁸Lord Steyn Democracy Through Law, September 20 02 R obin  Cooke lecture. Occasional Paper No 12 published by the New Zealand Centre for Public Law.      9 Section 5(1)(c) of the Law Commission Act 1985. 4 strict adherence to lawful process.⁸ Who would disagree? These are fundamental requirements without which there is never likely to be any real access to justice. They are fragile and easily compromised. They can never be taken for granted. It requires determination, vigilance, and effort to protect and preserve them. Much of this paper examines, in the context of law-making, the extent of that determination, vigilance, and effort. 6 A  degree  of  law  reform  is  involved  every  time  the  law  is  changed.  That  is  so whether the change in the law is a minor adjustment to a statute or regulation or involves sweeping change. Everyone who is engaged in the process of changing the law is to some degree a law reformer. The term law reformer is thus not confined to the expert and formally constituted law reform bodies such as are represented here, but includes legislators in Parliaments and members of executives, Ministers and officials with law-making powers, Ministers and their advisers who formulate legislative policies and place them before Parliament or before the executive in its law making capacity, and the lawyers who translate those policies into legislation. Much of what is said in this paper is, one hopes, of some relevance to the work of specialist law reform agencies, but it is also applicable to law reformers as a whole. 7 Law  reformers  promote  access  to  justice  by  ensuring  laws  are  both  just  and accessible. A principal function of the New Zealand Law Commission is— “ [T]o advise the Minister of Justice [and the responsible Minister] on ways in which the law of New Zealand can be made as understandable and accessible as is practicable.⁹