Project status: Complete
Download the report and draft legislation here Download the summary of the report here The problem Consumers often pay for goods in advance of receiving them. This happens whenever consumers buy goods online. It can also happen when consumers pay for goods in a physical store, but the goods have to be made to the … Read more >
Project status: Pre-project
“Contempt of court” covers a wide variety of conduct which undermines or has the potential to undermine the course of justice, and the procedures which are designed to deal with them. The law governing contempt of court is vast. The Law Commission’s consultation paper on contempt of court was published in November 2012. It focused … Read more >
Project status: Analysis of responses
Our final report in the Contempt of Court project will deal with contempt in the face of the court and other aspects of contempt by publication not dealt with in our previous reports.
Project status: Complete
We published a report explaining and setting out our recommendations in this area on 26 March 2014. In our report we recommended: ensuring that postponement orders on court reporting are all posted on a single publicly accessible website (a similar website currently operates in Scotland), and including a further restricted service where, for a charge, … Read more >
Project status: Complete
We published a report explaining and setting out our recommendations in this area on 9 December 2013. In our report we recommended the creation of a new criminal offence for jurors conducting prohibited research. This recommendation was implemented by section 71 of the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015 (inserting a new section 20A into … Read more >
Project status: Complete
This historic form of contempt covers conduct likely to undermine the administration of justice or public confidence in courts and judges. In August 2012 we published a consultation paper on scandalising the court. This work was brought forward to feed into the Government’s consideration of the proposal in the Crime and Courts Bill to abolish … Read more >
Project status: Complete
Project status: Pre-project
The problem The general rule for attributing liability to companies in English and Welsh criminal law is the ‘identification principle’. This states that where a particular mental state is required, only the acts of a senior person representing the company’s “controlling mind and will” can be attributed to the company. In practice, this is limited … Read more >
Project status: Complete
Project status: Complete
This project has been superseded by our work on Bribery. We carried out this project in response to calls from two prestigious bodies for a review of this area of the law: the Salmon Commission and the Nolan Committee. We were also very conscious of the consequences of corruption, which strikes at the root of … Read more >