The Law Reform Commission has recommended that the mandatory life sentence for murder should be retained, but that judges should be allowed to recommend a specific minimum term.
Judges in Northern Ireland currently have the power to recommend a minimum term a convicted murderer should spend in prison.
The commission also recommended that the current minimum sentences for certain drugs and firearms offences should be repealed.
It made its recommendations in a report on mandatory sentencing that will be published later today.
The commission also proposed that a judicial council should be able to develop and publish suitable guidance or guidelines on sentencing.
It welcomed the Government proposal to establish the Parole Board on an independent statutory basis.
The commission said the illegal drugs business has adapted to the sentencing regime and low-level offenders are being jailed rather than those at the top of the trade.
The mandatory minimum sentence of ten years in prison for those caught with more than €13,000 worth of illegal drugs was introduced in 1999.
The move came because of the public outrage over the activities of drug dealers following the murder of journalist Veronica Guerin.
But the commission said it should be repealed because the traffickers have adapted to it by using expendable couriers to hold and transport drugs.
The high level of guilty pleas in order to avoid the presumptive minimum sentence has also increased the number of low-level drug offenders in the prison system.
The commission recommends that a more structured, guidance-based sentencing system would provide an appropriate alternative.
