The Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) has adopted a new approach to consultation as a way of encouraging greater engagement with a wider cross-section of academics, legal professionals and the community.
The ALRC said it understood that not everyone had the time, or inclination, to review a 300-page discussion paper in order to consider and comment on specific law reform proposals.
“To facilitate valuable submissions to the law reform process we are replacing our lengthy discussion papers in favour of shorter Consultation Papers with fewer than 40 pages,” the ALRC said.
“For those who would like a review of the literature and an in-depth analysis of existing research, the Consultation Paper will be accompanied by a series of Background Papers.”
The ALRC said that in 2019 a concept consultation paper was developed which utilised content from the review into Australia’s corporate criminal responsibility regime.
The Commission said feedback and comments were solicited from multiple and diverse stakeholders in order to produce a straightforward and time-efficient consultative document that promoted submissions from a wide range of contributors.
“The first real Consultation Paper will be released at the end of April 2021 as part of the Judicial Impartiality Inquiry,” it said.
“The ALRC will be seeking formal submissions in response to the law reform proposals and consultation questions set out in the Consultation Paper.”
The ALRC said further consultations would be undertaken in response to the submissions received.
