About

Overview

The British Columbia Law Institute was created in January 1997 by incorporation under the Provincial Society Act. The broad purposes of the Institute, described in Article 2 of its Constitution, are to:

• promote the clarification and simplification of the law and its adaptation to modern social needs,
• promote improvement of the administration of justice and respect for the rule of law, and
• promote and carry out scholarly legal research.

The Institute was created in response to a decision by the Ministry of Attorney General to withdraw program funding from the Law Reform Commission of British Columbia . The disappearance of the Commission, without replacement, had the potential to create a serious vacuum in the legal resources available to the people of British Columbia and carried a significant risk that the tangible and intellectual assets of the Commission would become dissipated and irretrievably lost. The Institute was created as a successor body to mitigate this loss.

The by-laws of the Institute provide that it is composed of 14 members, eight appointed by stakeholder groups and the balance serving as "members-at-large." Every member of the Institute is also a director.

Information on how to contact us is also available. To read a copy of our strategic plan, click here.