The California Law Revision Commission (CLRC) is an independent

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

state agency responsible for recommending reforms of state law. The agency was created in 1953 and advises both the

Governor A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...

and state legislators on reforming state laws.

Duties

The CLRC makes recommendations to the

California State Legislature The California State Legislature is the bicameral state legislature of the U.S. state of California, consisting of the California State Assembly (lower house with 80 members) and the California State Senate (upper house with 40 members). ...

to correct defects in California statutory law and to bring that law into harmony with modern conditions. The CLRC may only study matters that have been expressly authorized by legislative resolution or statute. Some of the CLRC's studies are purely technical. For example, in 2006 the CLRC was directed to recodify the Penal Code provisions relating to deadly weapons, to make them easier to use and understand without making any change in the outcomes under those laws. Other CLRC studies involve significant legal and policy issues. For example, in 2013 the CLRC was directed to make recommendations to modernize California law on state and local government access to the customer records of communication service providers. CLRC studies vary widely in scope. Some involve the revision of a single code section, while others have created or recodified entire codes of law. For example, the CLRC drafted the California Evidence Code.

Staff

Seven of the CLRC's ten members are appointed by the Governor for four year terms, with the advice and consent of the California Senate. One Member of the Senate is appointed by the Senate Committee on Rules, one Member of the Assembly is appointed by the Speaker of the Assembly, and the Legislative Counsel serves ex officio. The Commission's staff consists of its executive director, chief deputy counsel, two staff attorneys, and two administrative support staff. The current executive director is Sharon Reilly.

Location

The CLRC currently maintains its main office at

UC Davis School of Law The University of California, Davis School of Law is the professional graduate law school of the University of California, Davis. The school received ABA approval in 1968. It joined the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) in 1968. UC Da ...

and a branch office at Cubberley Community Center in

Palo Alto Palo Alto ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for ) is a charter city in northwestern Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. Th ...

Code Commission

The CLRC is the successor to the California Code Commission, which itself was the successor to a series of earlier ''ad hoc'' codification commissions. The Code Commission was established in 1929. It spent 24 years codifying the massive body of uncodified law that had accumulated (and continued to accumulate) in the

California Statutes California Statutes (Cal. Stats., also cited as Stats. within the state) are the acts of the California State Legislature as approved according to the California Constitution and collated by the Secretary of State of California. A legislative ...

, because the original

California Codes The California Codes are 29 legal codes enacted by the California State Legislature, which, alongside uncodified acts, form the general statutory law of California. The official codes are maintained by the California Office of Legislative Counse ...

were not a comprehensive codification. After the Code Commission completed the monumental task of codifying virtually all general California statutory law into the California Codes, it recommended the creation of the CLRC, as a permanent law reform body.

References

External links