Background to the Legislative Process

Law Reform

In this course, Professor Jeremy Horder (LSE) explores the process of law reform in the United Kingdom, in particular the input of the Law Commission. In the first module we discuss the background of the legislative process in the UK. In the second module, we look at different types of law reform processes. In the third module, we turn to the operation of the UK parliamentary system with respect to law reform, before turning to the special role of the Law Commission in the fourth module. In the fifth module, we explore Law Commission projects. Finally, in the sixth module, we consider the political position of law reform bodies, and the process that Parliament uses to work out whether legislation is successful.

Background to the Legislative Process

In this module, we provide some context by introducing the background to the legislative process, focusing in particular on (i) parliamentary sessions (ii) backbench influence on the law reform process (iii) government sponsored legislation (iv) secondary legislation (v) the role of the Public Bills and Legislation Committee.