Lawyers, Legislators and Theorists Developments in English Criminal Jurisprudence 1800-1957

by Smith, K. J. M.

• ISBN13: 9780198257233
• ISBN10: 0198257236
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1998-12-10
• Publisher: Clarendon Press

Summary

This book describes in detail the development of the main principles of substantive criminal law during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Author Biography

Keith Smith is a Professor of Law at the Cardiff Law School, The University of Wales

Table of Contents

Table of Cases	xvii
Chapter 1. Introductory Observations: Objectives and Limitations	1	(8)
PART I. 1800-1832	7	(112)
Chapter 2. Legal Theory and Legal Culture	9	(46)
A. The Intellectual Backdrop of 1800	9	(33)
1. Statute and Common Law: The Role of Judicial Creativity	9	(1)
1.1 The Nature and Legitimacy of the Common Law and its Development	10	(1)
1.2 The Role of Statute Law	11	(2)
1.3 The Judicial Role	13	(2)
1.4 The Influence of Blackstone and Bentham on the Common Law and Judicial Analysis	15	(4)
2. Pre-1800 Conceptions of the Criminal Law and Punishment	19	(1)
2.1 Blackstone's Exposition	20	(5)
2.2 Blackstone's Legacy: Eden and Dagge	25	(3)
2.3 The Capital Question: Paley, Madan, and Romilly	28	(2)
2.4 Bentham's Response to Blackstone	30	(1)
2.4(1) A Penal Legislator's Handbook	31	(1)
2.4(2) Criminal Actions	32	(1)
2.4(3) Criminal States of Mind	33	(2)
2.4(4) Criminal Harm--the Proper Reach of the Criminal Law	35	(2)
2.4(5) An Appropriate Measure of Punishment	37	(1)
2.4(6) Bentham's Intellectual Contribution and Influence	38	(4)
B. The Procedures and Personnel of the Criminal Law	42	(13)
1. Developments in Trial Procedures and the Rules of Evidence	42	(1)
1.1 Trial Procedures	42	(4)
1.2 The Reconceptualization of Evidence Rules	46	(3)
2. Agents of Change: Judges and Lawyers	49	(6)
Chapter 3. Developments in Criminal Theory	55	(66)
A. An Excess of Punishment	56	(10)
1. The Significance of Romilly's Campaigns	58	(3)
2. The Judiciary and Criminal Legislation	61	(3)
3. Summary--Conclusions	64	(2)
B. The Sources and Form of Criminal Law: The Medium of Change: Consolidation or Codification?	66	(18)
1. Sources of the Criminal Law	66	(3)
1.1 Old Wine in New Bottles	69	(3)
2. Form	72	(3)
2.1 To Consolidate or to Codify?	75	(3)
2.2 Schemes for Revision of the Criminal Law	78	(5)
2.3 Summary--Conclusions	83	(1)
C. Substantive Law and Theory: Content	84	(35)
1. Criminally Culpable Fault	85	(7)
2. Moral Agency: The Necessary Characteristics of the Criminal Actor--Introduction	92	(3)
2.1 Necessary Mental Capacity--Insanity	95	(5)
2.2 Intoxication	100	(2)
2.3 Duress and Necessity	102	(3)
2.4 Summary--Conclusions	105	(1)
3. Attempt: Contracting Consequentialism or Expanding the Notion of Criminal Harm?	105	(3)
3.1 An `Overt Act'	108	(3)
3.2 Mens Rea, Proximity, and Impossibility	111	(3)
3.3 Conclusions--The Pace of Doctrinal Acceptance	114	(5)
PART II. 1833-1907	119	(158)
Chapter 4. Notions of Subjective Criminal Fault	121	(52)
A. Theorists and Proto-Legislators	121	(38)
1. An Overview of the Dramatis Personae	121	(1)
2. Austin's Speculations on Criminal Responsibility and Subjective Fault	122	(5)
3. Criminal Responsibility and the Criminal Law Commissioners	127	(11)
4. Macaulay's 1837-1860 Indian Penal Code	138	(5)
5. Stephen's Concepts of Criminal Responsibility	143	(8)
6. Wright's Draft Jamaican Criminal Code	151	(1)
7. Austin's Revival	152	(5)
8. Summary--Conclusions	157	(2)
B. Judicial Conceptions of Subjective Fault	159	(14)
1. Procedural and Evidential Inhibitions	159	(7)
2. Presumption of Intended Consequences	166	(5)
3. Summary--Conclusions	171	(2)
Chapter 5. Objective and Constructive Criminal Fault	173	(31)
A. Theorists and Proto-Legislators	173	(18)
1. Austin and the Criminal Law Commissioners	174	(3)
2. Constructive Fault	177	(5)
3. Stephen and Holmes	182	(6)
4. Clark to Kenny	188	(2)
5. Summary--Conclusions	190	(1)
B. Judicial Conceptions of Objective and Constructive Fault	191	(13)
1. Manslaughter Based on Negligence	192	(3)
2. Unlawful Act Manslaughter	195	(3)
3. Felony-murder	198	(2)
4. Mistake of Fact	200	(4)
Chapter 6. Excluding the Presumption of Fault: Strict and Vicarious Responsibility--Nineteenth-century Developments	204	(14)
A. Judicial Pragmatism and the Presumption of Fault	206	(5)
B. Parliament's Will: Fault and the Legislative Process	211	(2)
C. Vicarious Responsibility	213	(2)
D. Summary--Conclusions	215	(3)
Chapter 7. Moral Agency: The Necessary Characteristics of the Criminal Actor	218	(45)
A. Necessary Mental Capacity: Insanity	218	(21)
1. Stumbling Towards M'Naghten	218	(5)
2. The Post-M'Naghten Era	223	(1)
2.1 The Meaning of `Wrong'	223	(3)
2.2 Impaired Volitional Power	226	(6)
3. Emerging Concerns and Practices	232	(7)
B. Intoxication	239	(6)
C. Duress and Necessity	245	(12)
1. Commentators' Speculation and Judicial Hesitation	245	(7)
2. Chickens Coming Home to Roost: Dudley and Stephens	252	(4)
3. Summary--Conclusions	256	(1)
D. Justification, Excuse, Voluntariness, and Mens Rea--Summary Observations	257	(6)
Chapter 8. Attempt: Contracting Consequentialism--Expanding the Notion of Criminal Harm?	263	(14)
A. The Proximity Puzzle	263	(5)
B. Impossibility	268	(4)
C. Mens Rea	272	(3)
D. Summary--Conclusions	275	(2)
PART III. 1908-1957	277	(102)
Chapter 9. Criminal Fault	279	(43)
A. Judicial Conceptions of Fault	279	(13)
1. Subjective Fault	280	(4)
2. Objective Fault	284	(2)
3. Constructive Fault	286	(2)
4. Proof of Criminal Fault	288	(4)
B. Theorists and Legislators	292	(22)
1. Subjective and Objective Fault Distinguished	292	(4)
2. Constructive Fault and Presumed Intention	296	(1)
3. Turner's Principle of Subjectivity	297	(4)
4. Turner's Conceptual Colonization of Kenny and Russell	301	(3)
5. Williams's Modern Critical Analysis	304	(5)
6. Constructive Fault 1949-1957: Statutory Extinction and Judicial Exhumation	309	(5)
C. Excluding the Presumption of Fault: Strict and Vicarious Liability	314	(8)
1. Summary--Conclusions	320	(2)
Chapter 10. Moral Agency: The Necessary Characteristics of the Criminal Actor	322	(29)
A. Necessary Mental Capacity: Insanity	322	(16)
1. Volitional Impairment--Principle or Pragmatism?	322	(4)
2. Royal Commission on Capital Punishment (1949-1953)	326	(3)
3. Homicide Act 1957	329	(3)
4. Provocation	332	(2)
5. Automatism	334	(2)
6. Concluding Reflections	336	(2)
B. Intoxication	338	(5)
1. Concluding Reflections	342	(1)
C. Duress and Necessity	343	(8)
1. Duress	343	(3)
2. Necessity	346	(2)
3. Concluding Reflections	348	(3)
Chapter 11. Attempt: Contracting Consequentialism--Expanding the Notion of Criminal Harm?	351	(10)
Chapter 12. Summary Observations and Speculations: General and Particular	361	(18)
A. General Observations	361	(8)
1. Education, Legal Literature and Culture	361	(3)
2. Appeals	364	(2)
3. Characteristics of Criminal Law Judgments	366	(3)
B. Particular Observations	369	(10)
1. Criminal Fault	369	(4)
2. Moral Agency	373	(3)
3. Attempt	376	(3)
Bibliography	379	(8)
Index	387