Consultations/Proposals

We intend to consult widely as we develop proposals and produce discussion papers, reports and recommendations.  We will announce opportunities for consultation here.  We encourage the submission of proposals at any time and will also send out a call for proposals once a year or more often. 

If you wish to make a proposal to the LCO, please describe the proposal, identify the reason this subject matter should be reviewed and explain why it falls within the mandate of the LCO.  If you are aware of work that has already been completed on this topic, let us know.  In selecting projects, the LCO takes into account wide-ranging criteria, not all of which are applicable or applicable in the same way to all potential projects.  The criteria are:

  •  degree of consistency with the LCO’s mandate to increase access to the legal system and contribute to law reform scholarship and, in particular, consistency with the LCO’s mandate as a law reform body (generally, the LCO should avoid big studies for the sake of study; rather, projects should have the potential to lead to recommendations re law or law and other areas of reform);
  • contribution to delivering the message about the kind of law reform body the LCO intends to be: holistic, innovative, socially conscious, pragmatic;
  • the constituency/ies or community/ies affected;
  • the number of people affected;
  • whether the project will address a significant need that is not being addressed by government;
  • whether the project falls within another institution’s mandate;
  • whether the subject matter is being litigated;
  • whether there is duplication with other on-going or recently completed work in Ontario;
  • degree of association with/non-duplication of work being carried out by law reform bodies elsewhere (collaboration might be valuable, but on other occasions, we may prefer to let another Commission do the work);
  • whether the project will produce information and recommendations likely to be implemented and/or to influence in a constructive fashion the dialogue on law reform in the area;
  • whether the project will be widely seen by the public as relevant and necessary;
  • whether the project will produce forward looking, original and innovative ideas;
  • whether the project will be achievable within the relevant timelines and resources available;
  • the desire to have a mix of narrowly focused and complex projects on-going; and
  • the opportunity for a conference on the project’s subject matter.


The LCO’s projects will encompass all areas of law within provincial jurisdiction, including those overlapping with federal jurisdictions and will affect a wide range of communities, including those defined geographically, linguistically and demographically.  The projects will address socially relevant justice issues and narrower questions of law, always with the objective of making the legal system fairer, more accessible and more effective.  In the usual course, the LCO will have on-going at least two or three narrowly focused projects and at least two complex projects.