The Law Commission for England and Wales is consulting on proposals to reform the law of contempt of court. The consultation paper is more than 400 pages long but there’s a handy summary on the web page.
As most readers of this blog are only too well aware, a major barrier to transparency in family justice is the threat of being found to be in contempt of court by sharing any information relating to family proceedings held in private. This is because of section 12 of the Administration of Justice Act 1960, which many people, including the most senior judges, have said needs reform.
We were therefore puzzled that section 12 type contempt is not referred to in the Law Commission’s consultation paper, especially as the consultation aims to clarify the law and improve its consistency, coherence and effectiveness. Its terms of reference state it is not limited to contempt in criminal proceedings.
As we couldn’t see any explanation for this omission, we wrote a full response about the problems posed by section 12 and why reform is needed. We responded to a few other questions too, as it seemed possible under the proposals to be in contempt in family proceedings under a range of categories. You can read our response here.
We’ve previously published a response by Sir James Munby. We’re not aware of any other responses along similar lines but would be interested to see any that relate to family courts or to children’s rights.
The deadline for responses was the end of November so we look forward to the next stage in the consultation.
Image: Themis statue in Brisbane – Rae Allen, Flickr