Abstract
This special issue traces multifaceted readings of criminal law reform in the context of developments in Australia, North America and Europe. It addresses a range of criminal law legislative regimes, frameworks and issues confronting criminal law reform including as they relate to family violence, organisational liability for child sexual abuse, drug-driving and Indigenous under-representation on juries. In doing so, the articles variously assess the impacts of past criminal law reforms, current processes of reform, areas in need of future reform and the limitations of reform. It poses a number of challenges: Who does law reform serve? What principles should guide the work of criminal justice reform? What is the role and responsibility of universities in law reform? Who are the natural allies of academics in agitating for reform? Is reform of criminal law enough for progressive social change? Do public inquiries and law reform assist with progressive change or do they have the potential to undermine the struggle for more humane and equitable social responses?
Highlights
The term criminal ‘law reform’ is a broad one that encompasses any government legislation, policy or measure, and the articles in this issue reflect such breadth
Rather than sinking into despair, the continued involvement of academics in the law reform process reflects an on‐going belief and responsibility to aspire to justice in the legal system, as demonstrated in many of the articles in this special issue
They have been integral to the law reform process and civil society
Summary
Official law reform agencies and their close bedfellows—Royal Commissions and parliamentary inquiries—are not necessarily conducive of meaningful social change. Instead, they have been criticised for upholding the ‘state’s image of administrative rationality’ (Burton and Carlen 1979: 51). The terms of reference can be so narrowly conceived that they overlook the fundamental problem that the inquiry purports to address. The current Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has very wide terms of reference, yet Penny Crofts’ article in this collection raises questions about whether or not the necessary structural and systemic recommendations and reforms will follow
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