Functional Apologies in Law

Apology has recently emerged from being a relatively obscure construct in law to one that is prominent in various areas of law through actual or proposed law reforms. Whilst law reform is welcome, it is important that changes should be grounded in scientifically accepted theories and supported by research data and, furthermore, that the effectiveness or such endeavours should be evaluated before they arc further expanded. This cannot be said of the growth of the use of apology in haw. In this article I use a model of apology developed by Slocum, Allan and Allan (2006) to examine why apologies may be functional in law. I also examine What form an apology may have to take to be functional in criminal, civil, and constitutional law respectively.