![handle is hein.journals/jnlosclwl2 and id is 1 raw text is:
The Royal Commission on Legal
Services: The Theoretical
Background
By Mike Elliott, B.A., B.C.L.
Department of Law, London School of Economics
Introduction
In Spring 1976 a short but effective campaign1 persuaded the then Government to
institute a wide-ranging inquiry into the legal profession and aspects of the legal
system. Following the traditional British practice, a Royal Commission was estab-
lished and it began work in July 1976. Later in that year it was announced that its
title would include a phrase hitherto more commonly used in America and reform-
ing groups in this country: Legal Services. The adoption of the phrase, the
balanced make-up of the personnel of the Commission2 and the breadth of its
terms of reference' led to hopes that the report of the Commission would
strengthen the hand of those wanting radical change in the legal profession and the
way it went about its work. Three and a half years later, its report has been
greeted, outside the established bodies of the legal profession, with a uniquely bad
press. Commentators have noted its prolixity, turgidity of style, repetitiveness and,
at times, woefully poor research.: The analysis behind certain of its proposals is so
poor that the worst possible fear of the reformers-that the report would foreclose
debate on the legal profession and legal services for years to come-may not come
to pass. Instead, its inability to cost its proposals and, one suspects, the poverty of
its reasoning, has enabled the Government to adopt a position of neutrality to.its
recommendations.' It will, perhaps, merit little more than a footnote in the history
of the legal system in this country.
Yet to ignore the report completely would be to neglect an opportunity to
examine some of the key theoretical issues that underlie consideration of the role
of law and lawyers in modern society. Hidden in the interstices of the report, I
submit, are a number of crucial theoretical assumptions that explain why certain
proposals were made. An analysis of the theoretical position that the report took
Led particularly by Professor Michael Zander and Jack Ashley, M.P.
2 Lawyers were a minority of the Commission and two of the lawyers chosen had identifiably
reforming backgrounds.
' The terms of reference were To inquire into the law and practice relating to the provision
of legal services in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and to consider whether any,
and if so what, changes are desirable in the public interest in the structure, organisation,
training, regulation of and entry to the legal profession, including the arrangements for
determining its remuneration, whether from private sources or public funds, and in the
rules which prevent persons who are neither barristers nor solicitors from undertaking
conveyancing and other legal business on behalf of other persons.
' See, e.g. Glasser, The Royal Commission: The Remuneration of the Profession and Legal
Aid, [1979] L.A.G. Bull. 201 on the adequacy of some of the Commission's research.
* See the report of the Parliamentary statement on the Commission's report in The Guar-
dian, November 1, 1979.
1](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/jnlosclwl2&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
What Is HeinOnline?
Contact us for annual subscription options:
Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?
profiles profiles most
Contact us for annual subscription options:
Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?
profiles profiles most
Contact us for annual subscription options:
Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?
profiles profiles most