ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the role of the Law Commission. The Commission does have the major prize of independent thought and freedom to make whatever recommendations it sees as desirable. Successful law reform can only be achieved by considerable co-operation between many parties. The success of the Law Commission over the years has been proportionate to the familiarity of relevant Whitehall departments with its work. The Lord Chancellor's Department, which looks after the Commission administratively, knows the Commission's work well and appreciates it. It also has responsibility for those areas of the law where the Commission has consistently scored its successes: family law, basic property law, private international law, adjectival law. Government policy differed from the Law Commission's recommendations in two ways, and the bill was drafted accordingly. First, a landlord would have to give a former tenant prompt notice when a successor fell into arrears. Second, the new liability on change of ownership rules would not be backdated.
