Emma Humphreys & Malcolm Dowden dissect the recent Law Commission e-comms code consultation
The Law Commission’s consultation paper based on its initial review of the electronic communications code (the code) makes some substantive proposals for change, but also raises several questions and calls for information from practitioners.
Actual reform remains a distant prospect. There is no realistic chance of change until at least 2015. Consequently, while practitioners ought to take the opportunity to contribute to the reform process, the paper has a more immediate practical use since it isolates points on which the code is unclear and possibly unworkable in its current form. Consequently, it provides practitioners with a crisp and direct means to navigate through the complex drafting and often questionable logic of the code when advising clients on current matters.
Private enterprise, public benefit
The Commission considers that a court order made under the code to dispense with the need for agreement to the installation of electronic communications apparatus must engage human rights issues: specifically, protection of private property under Art 1 of the First Protocol to the
