Law Reform In Australia Essay

1392 Words6 Pages

Laws are in constant change, either being interpreted or redefined, in order to ensure they reflect and suit the changes within our contemporary society. Due to new technology being brought into the 21st century, issues are emerging everyday, which impact and potentially harm society. As a result, a process known as ‘law reform’ takes place, as it examines existing laws to undergo change, or creates new laws due to loopholes found in the system. Revenge porn is a recently growing issue within our society due to modern technology as there was no established specific legislation for it, and so a general outcome was the existence of loop-holes within the system. Revenge porn is not only socially and emotionally damaging to society, but aswell …show more content…

Conditions are the first step of law reform, as they are constantly being shaped according to society. Changing social values are the main principles that guide people to differentiate between right and wrong, as well as reflect society and their beliefs. They are a great source of motivation regarding law reform. Revenge porn became a consistent issue within the Australian society, with the victims being put in a state where they felt they cant do anything. This caused society to realise how wrong the act of committing it was, and so legislators used their judicial decisions and took it into account. This was because of new concepts of justice within the society, and when society perceived that the fact there was no specific legislation for revenge porn, which resulted in not delivering just outcomes. Another vital role in regard to law reform is agencies. Agencies are lobby groups, people who petition for justice to be served. A petition by lobby groups was called on ACT government to introduce revenge porn laws, and specifically prohibit its distribution (ACT news; petition calls on ACT government article 7/8/2017). These lobby groups influenced the politicians and the public to receive the criminal act 2017 outcome. Lastly, mechanism is when the law actually changed and is reformed, which in this case, the federal law declared the new penalties by a judge if committed an offence on or towards revenge