Tactics of Legal Reform - Learning From the Recent Past

• NCJ Number: 101270
• Journal: Howard Journal Volume: 25 Issue: 1 Dated: (February 1986) Pages: 25-32
• Author(s): C Davies; E Trivizas
• Date Published: 1986
• Length: 8 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Legislation/Policy Analysis
• Language: English
• Country: United Kingdom

Annotation

Present and future reformers can learn a great deal from the tactics successfully employed in the past or in other societies.

Abstract

In Britain in the 1960's, major reforms relating to abortion, capital punishment, censorship, and homosexuality succeeded because the reformers argued their case in utilitarian, welfare terms and thus avoided fundamental moral clashes and countervailing moral crusades. In Ireland, Ulster, and the United States, religious fervor precludes the use of such a technique. In America, reformers have often instead based their case on the Constitution but their successes have been divisive and possibly ephemeral. The choice of tactics for reform must reflect the social and political climate of the time and the country. (Author abstract)