8.3 What is a law reform submission?
A law reform submission is, as the name suggests, a document that takes a substantive position on a law reform issue and seeks to persuade its target audience to agree with that position. The target audience is usually an organisation with the power to make or formally recommend changes to the law. A law reform submission is thus a submission to that organisation.
When a law reform inquiry or review starts, the organisation conducting it usually seeks submissions from members of the public and interested organisations. In most such inquiries and reviews, anyone is free to make a submission. It is part of the rights that mark out democracies that ordinary members of the public may petition the government to make changes without fear of reprisal from the government. Law reform submissions can be seen as coming within that broader right to petition the government.
Law reform submissions can be wide-ranging or narrow. They can urge the relevant commission, committee or commissioner to make certain recommendations, or simply offer information about the issues. Depending on the degree of public interest, some inquiries and reviews can receive hundreds of submissions.
Often, particular organisations or certain key office-holders make submissions to law reform bodies. Many of these organisations and office-holders are referred to as ‘stakeholders’ because they have a professional or formal interest in the outcome of the inquiry. They are often expressly invited to make submissions as to how they think the law should be changed or indeed whether it should be changed at all.
WHAT IS A STAKEHOLDER?
A ‘stakeholder’ in this context is some person, office or organisation with a particular interest (whether professional, financial, operational, political, personal or intellectual) in the outcome of a policy decision, often because it directly affects what they do. In that sense their interests can be said to be ‘at stake’ in the decision. They often include lobby groups (organisations that work for change in government policy or legislation) as well as professional associations and relevant industry representative bodies. Examples include the Victorian Council for Civil Liberties, the Federation of Community Legal Centres, the Victorian Bar, the Law Institute of Victoria, Victoria Legal Aid, the Office of Public Prosecutions and the Judicial College of Victoria.
In short, then, a law reform submission is a document that outlines a position about an issue being considered as part of a law reform inquiry or review. It can be long or short, broad or narrow. It can focus on one issue in particular or on several at once. It can argue for or against a change in the law – depending on the preferences of whichever stakeholder is drafting it. What makes a document a law reform submission is the fact that it is submitted as part of an inquiry or review into matters of law reform.
