4. It shall be the duty of the Law Commission to take and keep under review the law both substantive and procedural, with a view to its systematic development and reform, including in particular the codification of the law, the elimination of anomalies, the repeal of obsolete and unnecessary enactments, the reduction of the number of separate enactments and generally the simplification and modernization of the law, and without prejudice to any action that has been taken or may be taken by Government in that behalf, in particular, the codification of the law in English, Sinhala and Tamil, and for that purpose-
| (a) to receive and consider any proposals for the reform of the law which may be made or referred to them; |
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| (b) to prepare and submit to the Minister, from time to time, programmes for the examination of different branches of the law with a view to reform, including recommendations as to the agency (whether the Com mission or any other body) by which any such examination should be carried out; |
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| (c) to undertake, in pursuance of any such recommendations approved by the Minister, the examination of particular branches of the Law and the formulation, by means of draft Bills or otherwise, of proposals for reform therein; |
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| (d) to prepare, from time to time, at the request of the Minister comprehensive programmes of consolidation and statute law revision, and to undertake the preparation of draft Bills in pursuance of any such programme approved by the Minister; |
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| (e) to obtain such information as to the legal systems of other countries as appears to the Commission likely to facilitate the achievement of the objects of the Commission; |
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| (f) to keep under constant review the exercise by bodies, other than Parliament, of the power to legislate by subsidiary legislation with a view to ensuring that they conform to well-established principles and to the rule of law, that they do not have retrospective effect unless the enabling enactment confers express authority so to provide and that they do not make some unusual or unexpected use of the power conferred by the enactments under which they are made; |
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| (g) to formulate programmes for rationalizing and simplifying legal procedures including procedures of an administrative character connected with litigation; and |
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| (h) to formulate programmes for the codification of the law in English, Sinhala and Tamil. |
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Sri Lanka Consolidated Acts