The commentary in the report provides the following rationale for these proposals:

The court considered that that proposition already represented the common law. The statutory expression of the law of self-defence that we proposed in LCCP 122, and which we repeat in the Criminal Law Bill, therefore gives effect to the CLRC’s desire that the defence should be put on a statutory footing, and incorporates the statement of the law that was considered to be correct both by the CLRC and by the court in Gladstone Williams.