The legal position on male circumcision in Tasmania is being reviewed.

The Law Reform Institute is reviewing the legalities of the procedure, after the Children's Commissioner found uncertainly over whether it can be legally performed on an infant male.

An issues paper has been prepared by a post-graduate student of the Law reform Institute, Warwick Marshall.

"The biggest issue with the law, [is] that there's no particular bit of legislation that deals with male circumcision so the general, criminal and civil law applies."

"So charges such as assault and wounding, grievous bodily harm for example which you'd usually associate with fist fights, could apply to male circumcision," he said.

Legal concerns have come from parents and doctors.

"[They are] concerned about whether they could perform the operation legally so they were worried about whether they could possibly be penalised for performing what they thought could be a lawful operation."

Submissions to the review close on August 28th.