Note: "The Role of the Commission" is based on New South Wales Reform Commission Annual Report 1991, chapter 1.

1. Geoffrey Sawer “The Legal Theory of Law Reform” (1970) 20 University of Toronto Law Review 183 at 183.

2. See William H Hurlburt, Law Reform Commissions in the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada (Edmonton: Juriliber, 1986) Chapter 9 for a full discussion of this argument.

3. State Government Insurance Commission v Trigwell (1979) 142 CLR 617 at 633.

4. Law Reform Commission Act 1967 (NSW) s 10(1)(a)(vi) states that the Commission shall, in accordance with any reference made to it by the Minister, consider the law with a view to or for the purpose of “systematically developing and reforming the law”.

5. D M Walker “The Scottish Law Commission under Review” (1987) Statute Law Review 115, 121-122.

6. K C T Sutton, The Pattern of Law Reform in Australia (St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 1969) 15.

7. See R Sackville “The Role of Law Reform Agencies in Australia” (1985) 59 Australian Law Journal 151, 155-157.

8. See, for example, New South Wales Law Reform Commission Annual Report for Year Ended 30 June 1968 (1968) 3.

9. L Scarman, Law Reform: The New Pattern (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1968) 27-28.

10. Interpretation Act 1987 (NSW) s34(2)(b). This provision extends the common law approach taken in Black-Clawson International Ltd v Papierwerke Waldhof-Aschaffenburg AG [1975] AC 591 and Wacal Development Pty Ltd v Realty Development Pty Ltd (1978) 140 CLR 503.

11. Hurlburt, 453, note 2.