Law Reform?

On Monday, the Justice Secretary Jack Straw announced that he had ‘concerns’ about the way in which cautions were being used within our legal system and as such this is going to be reviewed as last year some cases of sexual assault, child neglect and even rape were dealt with by caution. In this same week, Straw also announced that the sentence for knife murder will be increasing from a custodial sentence of fifteen years to that of twenty five years. These changes are in the public interest and are a much needed change to our current UK law. However in several other areas of the law, there is a necessity for review and for reform.

At the moment, the law regarding duress (a defence where the defendant has effectively been forced to commit the crime) is not applicable for murder which may seem accurate on the surface but is actually extremely questionable. For example, if a woman’s car was hijacked and she was told she and her children were to be killed unless she helped terrorists to plant a bomb and someone was killed due to the bomb, the woman would have no defence. The Law Commission did publish a report proposing duress be a defence to murder but that was three years ago and as yet there has been no change.

Is it not also essential that the Law Commission and the Justice Secretary review the issues of euthanasia and capital punishment? Yes, there are moral issues but surely after the recent case of Debbie Purdy where the House of Lords unanimously decided there had to be clarification on the law regarding euthanasia, there is desperate need for reform. Even if the defendant has been begged to do the killing by a terminally ill person, they would still receive a fifteen year sentence which is the same sentence as that of a murderer who has intentionally killed a person. Can this be justified?

There are so many issues within the law such as sentencing, defences and the more controversial areas of euthanasia and capital punishment that need to be reviewed so as to make sure that the law is fair and provides justice to all. Present day, it can be argued that there is little justice in our law and as Jack Straw has been making significant changes, more reform of the law is necessary, or more accurately, crucial.