Acts and Facts

1998 ◽  
Vol 62 (4) ◽  
pp. 360-373
Author(s):  
Stephen White

Since the Criminal Procedure (Insanity and Unfitness to Plead) Act 1991 there has had to be a ‘trial of the facts’ to determine whether a defendant found unfit to be tried ‘did the act or made the omission charged against him as the offence’ In Egan (below) the Court of Appeal held that by the ‘act’ was meant all elements of the offence. This holding, while meritorious, plainly violates the intention of the 1991 Act, ignores the history of the phrase ‘act charged as an offence’, and is inconsistent with the meaning that has to be attributed to the phrase when the jury are considering whether to return a special verdict of insanity. It also makes for a further anomaly when a defendant unfit to be tried seeks an acquittal on the ground that he lacked mens rea because of insanity. The proposals of the Law Commission's Criminal Law Team for ‘Counts in an Indictment’ will go some, but not necessarily the whole, way to helping courts identify exactly what is the ‘act charged as the offence’.

2011 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 297-302
Author(s):  
Benjamin L. Berger

The three articles offered in this forum on the early history of criminal appeals do us the great service of adding much of interest on this important but neglected issue in the development of Anglo–North American criminal procedure. The opaqueness of the legal history of criminal appeals stands in stark contrast to their centrality and apparent naturalness in contemporary criminal justice systems in England, Canada, and the United States. These three papers look at the period leading up to and immediately following the creation of the first formalized system of what we might call criminal appeals, the establishment of the Court of Crown Cases Reserved (CCCR) in 1848. This key period in the development of the adversary criminal trial was marked by both a concerted political effort to codify and rationalize the criminal law and by profound structural changes in the management of criminal justice.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 48-69
Author(s):  
Diah Ratri Oktavriana ◽  
Nasiri Nasiri

This research is a normative research. One of the fulfillment of human rights is justice in equalizing the position of every citizen before the law, as stated in Article 27 paragraph (1) of the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia. The right to equality before the law or what is commonly referred to as equality before the law is a principle that provides recognition and protection of human rights for every individual regardless of one's background. Therefore, it is true that Law Number 16 of 2011 concerning Legal Aid for People Who Are Less Capable to Guarantee Constitutional Rights of Citizens for Justice and Equality before the Law emerged. Legal aid is a legal service provided by advocates to the community seeking justice In the realm of criminal cases, the provision of legal assistance is described in Article 54 of the Criminal Procedure Code which explains that in the interests of defense, a suspect or defendant has the right to receive legal assistance from one or more legal advisers during the time and at each level of examination. The provision of legal assistance must be based on the principle of equality before the law as stated in the explanation of Law Number 8 of 1981 concerning Criminal Procedure Law. From the various analyzes that have been carried out, in the perspective of Islamic criminal law it can be concluded that the principle of equality before the law as described in Article 54 of the Criminal Procedure Code is equivalent to an order to provide legal aid which in Islamic criminal law is spelled out in Surah Al-Maidah verse 2 which states that as a fellow humans are ordered to help each other as a form of horizontal worship to fellow humans (habl minan-nas). In addition there are many more both in the Al Qur'an and the hadith of the prophet regarding the application of the principle of equality before the law.


2018 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 46-56
Author(s):  
Aleksandr V. Fedorov ◽  
◽  
Mikhail V. Krichevtsev ◽  

The article reviews the history of development of French laws on criminal liability of legal entities. The authors note that the institution of criminal liability of legal entities (collective criminal liability) dates back to the ancient times and has been forming in the French territory for a long time. Initially, it was established in the acts on collective liability residents of certain territories, in particular, in the laws of the Salian Franks. This institution was inherited from the Franks by the law of the medieval France, and got transferred from the medieval period to the French criminal law of the modern period. The article reviews the laws of King Louis XIV as an example of establishment of collective criminal liability: the Criminal Ordinance of 1670 and the Ordinances on Combating Vagrancy and Goods Smuggling of 1706 and 1711. For the first time ever, one can study the Russian translation of the collective criminal liability provisions of the said laws. The authors state that although the legal traditions of collective liability establishment were interrupted by the transformations caused by the French Revolution of 1789 to 1794, criminal liability of legal entities remained in Article 428 of the French Penal Code of 1810 as a remnant of the past and was abolished only as late as in 1957. The publication draws attention to the fact that the criminal law codification process was not finished in France, and some laws stipulating criminal liability of legal entities were in effect in addition to the French Penal Code of 1810: the Law on the Separation of Church and State of December 9, 1905; the Law of January 14, 1933; the Law on Maritime Trade of July 19, 1934; the Ordinance on Criminal Prosecution of the Press Institutions Cooperating with Enemies during World War II of May 5, 1945. The authors describe the role of the Nuremberg Trials and the documents of the Council of Europe in the establishment of the French laws on criminal liability of legal entities, in particular, Resolution (77) 28 On the Contribution of Criminal Law to the Protection of the Environment, Recommendation No. R (81) 12 On Economic Crime, the Recommendation No. R (82) 15 On the Role of Criminal Law in Consumer Protection and Recommendation No. (88) 18 of the Committee of Ministers to Member States Concerning Liability of Enterprises Having Legal Personality for Offences Committed in the Exercise of Their Activities. The authors conclude that the introduction of the institution of criminal liability of legal entities is based on objective conditions and that research of the history of establishment of the laws on collective liability is of great importance for understanding of the modern legal regulation of the issues of criminal liability of legal entities.


Japanese Law ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 450-466
Author(s):  
Hiroshi Oda

The primary statute of criminal law in Japan is the Criminal Code of 1907. There are various separate laws which provide for specific crimes, generally denoted as ‘special criminal laws’. Some offences were added by way of such special laws in the recent years including the law against terrorist acts of 2019. The The Criminal Code is divided into the General Part and the Special Part. The former lays down the general principles and basic concepts of criminal law such as intention, negligence, attempt, accomplice, etc. The latter lists specific offences. Constitution guarantees the rights of defendants and suspects. Criminal procedure has become much more transparent, and better protection is given to suspects.


2021 ◽  
pp. 34-78
Author(s):  
Michael J. Allen ◽  
Ian Edwards

Course-focused and contextual, Criminal Law provides a succinct overview of the key areas on the law curriculum balanced with thought-provoking contextual discussion. This chapter explains the concept of actus reus. It discusses the elements of crime, defining an actus reus, proving an actus reus, that conduct must be voluntary, state of affairs offences, omissions liability (situations in which a person will be liable for failing to act), causation (including the principles of factual and legal causation), and coincidence in time of actus reus and mens rea. ‘The law in context’ feature analyses critically English law’s approach to liability for causing another person’s suicide.


2021 ◽  
pp. 126-150
Author(s):  
Michael J. Allen ◽  
Ian Edwards

Course-focused and contextual, Criminal Law provides a succinct overview of the key areas on the law curriculum balanced with thought-provoking contextual discussion. This chapter discusses the meaning of negligence, arguments for and against negligence as a basis for criminal liability, the meaning of strict liability, the origins of and justifications for strict liability, the presumption of mens rea in offences of strict liability, defences to strict liability, and strict liability and the European Convention on Human Rights. The feaeture ‘The law in context’ examines critically the use of strict liability as the basis for liability in the offence of paying for the sexual services of a person who has been subject to exploitation.


Author(s):  
David Ormerod ◽  
Karl Laird

This chapter examines the law governing theft. It considers the extent to which the criminal law of theft conflicts with civil law concepts of property; whether it is possible to steal property that belongs to oneself; the types of property that may be stolen; and the extent to which it is possible to provide a definition of ‘dishonesty’. The test for dishonesty has been fundamentally altered by the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal, developments which are analysed in this chapter.


Author(s):  
David Ormerod ◽  
Karl Laird
Keyword(s):  
Mens Rea ◽  

This chapter examines the law on murder. It considers when does life begin and end for the purposes of the law of murder; should an intention to cause really serious harm suffice as the mens rea for murder; and how might this area of the law be reformed so as to reflect generally recognized principles of the criminal law?


Author(s):  
Aditya Wisnu Mulyadi

The phenomenon of the Contempt of Court is an event that is rife in Indonesia lately. It is considered to reduce the dignity, majesty and authority of the judiciary and its apparatus. Particularly the dignity and authority of the judge. Attitudes and actions displayed by the search for justice, legal practitioners, the press, political and social organizations, NGOs, academics, judicial commission, as well as various other parties in such a way can be categorized injure the dignity, majesty and authority of the judiciary, good attitude and actions directed against the judicial process, judicial officials, as well as court decisions. Lack of strict legal instruments and adequate to serve as guidelines and benchmarks to judge such a phenomenon is made Contempt of Court always the case. View of the judge is an arm of God would have been contrary to Contempt of Court. The judge in charge of prosecuting and providing justice for justice seekers should not accept the bad treatments. This study is based on normative research method using statutory approach and conceptual approaches. Legislation that used is Law No. 4 of 1985 on the Supreme Court, Code of criminal law, the law book of the law of criminal procedure, the draft book of the Criminal Justice Act 2012 and draft the Code of Criminal Procedure 2012. This research is expected to contribute significantly for the creation benchmarks and appropriate guidelines in terms of the establishment of regulations and legislation on Contempt of Court Act


2000 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
pp. 50-52
Author(s):  
J.R. Spencer

FOR centuries, English criminal procedure regarded the “surprise witness” as a legitimate weapon, for the prosecution as well as the defence. In a case in 1823 Park J. complained that the defendant had seen the depositions in advance of trial. “The prosecutor or his solicitor might have access to them, but not the party accused. For what would be the consequence if the latter had access to them? Why, that he would know everything which was to be produced in evidence against him—an advantage which it was never intended should be extended towards him …” (J.F. Stephen, History of the Criminal Law of England (1883), vol. I, p. 228).


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