The Coroners & Justice Act 2009 and the Defense of Provocation - Essay Example

At last, the areas so desperately in need of reform would be given the due attention deserved, and the web of case law upon which they were perched would be dusted. However, as is usually the case with proposed reformations of the law, the tentative steps taken were a far cry from the envisaged upheavals. And so the age-old question resounds in courtrooms around the country – is the situation any better now than it was previously? This paper will explore the new stance of the law in relation to the defense of provocation under the Justice and Coroners Act 2009, and assess what changes were made, as well as the reasoning behind the changes.

Overall, it will argue that there have been no major changes made by the new legislation, and the situation is thus no better than before. It will propose that, although the problems surrounding the previous law were apparent, the government failed to fully take advantage of the new act and simply reworded problematic provisions. This is despite the fact that plenty of major problems in the old law of provocation were brought to the attention of Parliament.Indeed, it is no easy task to reorganize an age-old law such as that of homicide, especially as its roots run deep into the legal history of England.

Yet, where changes are necessary a method has to be found, and a compromise has to be made in light of societal developments. The little changes made cause one question whether it was all really worth the debates and the hype. Why didn’t Parliament fully adopt the Law Commission’s recommendations? Will a tentative approach to change really prove more beneficial than a complete upheaval?