8: Law Reform - Self Paced Lesson - Tertiary and Secondary Legal Materials - Subject Guide

Law Reform is the process of reviewing, developing and changing the law to bring it into line with current conditions (i.e. removing outdated laws or introducing new laws to support the regulation of something new).

Law reform publications are highly valuable to legal research as they are very detailed and the topics contained within them are often of high importance and of current interest.
Often the recommendations contained within law reform reports are accepted by the executive government and become the basis of future legislation.

The Law Reform Research Guide provides links to many Law Reform resources.

Australian Law Reform Commission

There are a number of law reform commissions throughout all jurisdictions. The Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) has the task of reviewing Commonwealth laws for the purposes of systematically developing and reforming the law, particularly by (see, s 21 Australian Law Reform Commission Act 1996 (Cth)):

i) bringing the law into line with current conditions and ensuring that it meets current needs; and

ii) removing defects in the law; and

iii) simplifying the law; and

iv) adopting new or more effective methods for administering the law and dispensing justice; and

v) providing improved access to justice.

The ALRC's website states that the ALRC "is a federal agency that reviews Australia's laws to ensure they provide improved access to justice for all Australians by making laws and related processes more equitable, modern, fair and efficient".

Law Reform Commission Reports

There is a range of sources for accessing Law Reform Commission reports:

Australian Law Reform Commission (under the Publications menu)

AustLII

HeinOnline's Australian Law Reform Commission Library (ALRC)

You need to be aware of all of these, as no one source is comprehensive.

Law Reform Commission Publications

Each state has its own Law Reform Commission, in addition to the Australian Law Reform Commission.

Many Law Reform Commission publications are available on each Commission's website under the Publications section.

Each website operates a little differently, but browsing through the website to locate the relevant document is a fairly simple process across all commissions.

Australian Law Reform Commission Publications Task: 2020 ALRC Final Report on corporate crime	Western Australian Law Reform Commission Publications Task: 2020 Final Report concerned with wrongful death
Step 1: From the Law Reform Commission homepage select Publications.	Step 1: From the Law Reform Commission of Western Australia homepage click on the magnifying glass search icon, in the top right hand corner, for Search
Step 2: Click on the magnifying glass search icon, in the top right hand corner, for Search	Step 2: Add search terms e.g. wrongful death
Step 3: Add search terms e.g. corporate crime	Step 3: Filter the results by Organisation: Law Reform Commission of Western Australia Information type: Independent report
Step 4: Filter the results by Publication Type: Final Report	Step 4: Results will appear below and here you can easily see the title and the publication date. The results are displayed with the most relevant publication first. One of the first result is a report entitled Claims for Non-Economic Loss for Wrongful Death under the Fatal Accidents Act 1959 (WA), published on 23 February 2021.
Step 5: Results will appear below and here you can easily see the title and the publication date. The results are displayed with the most recent publication first. The first result is a report entitled Corporate Criminal Responsibility (ALRC Report 136), published on 31 August 2020.	Step 5: Click on the title of the report to be taken to a list of publications related to this Inquiry. The Project page includes: Terms of Reference Discussion Paper Final Report
Step 6: Click on the title of the report to be taken to a list of publications related to this Inquiry. Here you will find a link to the Summary Report, Final report, data in spreadsheet format, the ability to view the document online, and download options. The link to About this Inquiry takes you to an overview page, which includes the initial Discussion Paper and Submissions - invaluable for more detailed information.
Note: This Final Report is also available from AustLII. Access from the Australian Law Report Commission website includes access to submissions and more details about the Inquiry

Law Reform Publications on AustLII

AustLII contains a collection of Australian law reform materials from Australasian jurisdictions.

To access the materials follow these steps:

Step 1: On the AustLII homepage, select Law Reform from the red banner.

Step 2: You will be taken to the Australasian Law Reform Library. Here you will find a large number of law reform commission publications listed under Australian Law Reform Resources and New Zealand Law Reform Resources. You can choose to view only Australian or New Zealand law reform resources by making the appropriate selection at the top of the screen.

You can choose to browse these publications individually, or you can search them individually or as a group.

Commonwealth Law Reform Reports	Western Australian Law Reform Reports
To Search a limited selection of law reform databases, deselect all by clicking on the blue check box next to Select/Clear All on the right-hand side of the page. If you do not do this, AustLII will search all of the law reform databases by default. Then select the check box next to the title of the database(s) you wish to search, for example, Australian Law Reform Commission Reports (ALRC) 1975- if you wish to search for reports of the ALRC. Next enter your search terms in the search box above the Databases heading and then complete your search.	Western Australian Law Reform materials are yet to be uploaded to AustLII (as at July 2021). Historical publications can be accessed from the Australasian Law Reform Library. Step 1: Select Western Australia under Catalogue and Websearch on the right-hand side of the page.
To Browse for a particular publication, click on the blue hyperlinked title of the database. The publications will be listed by date, beginning with the most recent. You can change this to Most Cited or Most Accessed by selecting from the tabs directly above the results. If you wish to view the results by year, select the "Any" box next to Specific Year and then select the relevant year. If you wish to browse by title, you can select the Starts with tab from the red banner and then choose the relevant starting letter of the publication in which you are interested.	Step 2: Select Law Reform Commission of Western Australia
	Step 3: From the Law Reform Commission of Western Australia homepage scroll down to Publications. Select Reports and Papers
	Step 4: Reports can be browsed by number.

Law Reform Publications on HeinOnline

HeinOnline contains a collection of Australian law reform materials from Australasian jurisdictions.

To access the materials follow these steps:

Step 1: On the HeinOnline homepage, select Australian Law Reform Commission Library (ALRC) from the menu.
Select the Library again from the pop out.

Step 2: You will be taken to the Australian Law Reform Commission Library (ALRC).
There are two tabs for Browsing.
The default opens on the Subject list.
You can also choose the Titles tab to browse.
For this example, we are going to use the Search function to source the 2020 ALRC Final Report on corporate crime.

Navigate to the Search box in the top right hand corner of the screen

Step 3: Add search terms e.g. "corporate crime"
Select the first suggestion to Just search for: "corporate crime"

Step 4: Results will appear below and here you can easily see the title and the publication date.
The results are displayed with the most relevant publication first as the default.
Document title and date are also results sorting options.
The first result is a report entitled Corporate Criminal Responsibility Final Report, published in 2020.

The search is across all content, so each instance of the search term appearing is included in the results list.

Step 5: Click on the title of the report to be taken to the report.
Each section of the report is available as a downloadable PDF.

Australian Law Reform Commissions

Information about other Australian Law Reform Commissions can be found at these links:

Other Law Reform Commissions

There are many other Law Reform Commissions around the globe that may be of relevance to your research, particularly when comparing laws from various jurisdictions.

Some key resources for finding international law reform materials include:

World Law Reform Database (British Columbia Law Institute) - index to publications of law reform agencies in the Commonwealth of Nations and the United States (some reports may not be available online);
WorldLII Law Reform Project - Searches across law reform databases hosted on the Legal Information Institutes (LIIs). Includes only a handful of common law jurisdictions at this time;
Law Commission (UK).

Self Paced Lesson - Tertiary and Secondary Legal Materials - Subject Guide: 8: Law Reform