History of English criminal law explained

The first signs of the modern distinction between criminal and civil proceedings were during the Norman conquest of England in 1066.[1] The earliest criminal trials had very little, if any, settled law to apply. However, the civil delictual law was highly developed and consistent in its operation (except where the king wanted to raise money by selling a new form of writ).

A local lord of the manor (or family) could hold their servants and tenants responsible in a manorial court and was among wealthy people who could more easily enlist the help of a county or city bailiff, posse comitatus if one existed and the justices of the peace. The sheriff was the often-armed representative of the king in a city, town or shire, responsible for collecting taxes and enforcing his laws. The church could hold ecclesiastical courts to resolve offences in its canon law and on its narrow territorial jurisdiction.

Justice for crimes sought in older forums and by private prosecution declined - instead the state courts, and increasingly the state paying lawyers to prosecute became the normal route to justice for matters that conceivably affect or endanger the community at large. In the 18th century European countries began operating police forces; in 1829 the first force formed in England which began its own prosecutions. Consequently criminal law had a more harmonised way of enforcement.

Crown Prosecution

Historically in England, with no police forces and no prosecution service, the only route to prosecution was through private prosecutions brought by victims at their own expense or lawyers acting on their behalf. From 1829, as the police forces were formed, they began to take on the burden of bringing prosecutions against suspected criminals.

Sir John Maule was appointed to be the first Director of Public Prosecutions for England and Wales in 1880, operating under the Home Office; his jurisdiction was only for decisions as to whether to prosecute in a very small number of difficult or important cases; once prosecution had been authorised, the matter was turned over to the Treasury Solicitor. Police forces continued to be responsible for the bulk of cases, sometimes referring difficult ones to the Director.

In 1962 a Royal Commission recommended that police forces set up independent prosecution departments so as to avoid having the same officers investigate and prosecute cases, although technically the prosecuting police officers did so as private citizens. The Royal Commission's recommendation was not implemented by all police forces, however, and so in 1978, another Royal Commission was set up, this time headed by Sir Cyril Philips. It reported in 1981, recommending that a single unified Crown Prosecution Service with responsibility for all public prosecutions in England and Wales be set up. A White Paper was released in 1983, becoming the Prosecution of Offences Act 1985, which established the CPS under the direction of the Director of Public Prosecutions, consisting of a merger of his old department with the existing police prosecution departments. It began in 1986.

Common law offences

See main article: Common law offence.

Abolished offences

The following common law offences once existed, but in England and Wales are now statutory (codified), part of other statutory offences, or completely abolished.

See also criminal libel for general information about the common law libel offences listed above.

Offences held no longer to exist or never to have existed

Offences against the person

See main article: Offence against the person.

Fatal offences

Extant offences

Abolished offences

Sexual offences

See main article: Sexual offences in the United Kingdom.

Extant offences

Abolished offences

Non-fatal non-sexual offences

Offences against property

See main article: Property crime.

Extant offences

Abolished offences

Firearms and offensive weapons

See also: Gun law, Gun politics in the United Kingdom and Offensive weapon.

Forgery, personation and cheating

Abolished offences

See forgery:

See personation:

(Both repealed by the Commissioners for Revenue and Customs Act 2005)

See cheating:

Offences against the state or Crown or government and political offences

Abolished offences

Offences against religion and public worship

Abolished offences

Offences against the administration of public justice

Abolished offences

Offences held no longer to exist or never to have existed

Public order offences

See main article: Public order offence.

Abolished offences

Offences against public morals and public policy

Abolished offences

Protection of animals and the environment

See main article: Environmental crime.

Road traffic and motor vehicle offences

See main article: United Kingdom traffic laws.

Participatory offences

See also: Accomplice, Aid and abet and Inchoate offenses.

Abolished offences

Classification of offences

Abolished classes

Defences

Abolished defences

Procedure

Abolished proceedings

See also

References

Notes and References

  1. see, Pennington, Kenneth (1993) The Prince and the Law, 1200–1600: Sovereignty and Rights in the Western Legal Tradition, University of California Press
  2. Abolished by the Offences against the Person Act 1828
  3. Codified by the Criminal Damage Act 1971
  4. Reformed by the Theft Act 1968
  5. Codified by the Theft Act 1968, later reformed by the Treasure Act 1996 (failure to comply with duty to notify coroner of discovery of treasure)
  6. Abolished by the Theft Act 1968
  7. Codified by the Forgery and Counterfeiting Act 1981
  8. Abolished by 73(a) of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009
  9. Abolished by the Criminal Law Act 1967
  10. Abolished by section 9(1) of the Public Order Act 1986
  11. Codified by the Public Order Act 1986
  12. Abolished by 73(b) of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009
  13. Abolished by 73(c) of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009
  14. Abolished by section 79(1) of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008
  15. Abolished by section 59 of the Serious Crime Act 2007
  16. Abolished by the Criminal Law Act 1967, section 13(1)(a)
  17. Codified by the Bribery Act 2010
  18. Codified by the Criminal Law Act 1977
  19. Codified by the Criminal Attempts Act 1981
  20. Codified by the Criminal Law Act 1977 and, other than the exceptions mentioned, abolished in respect of acts that are not criminal offences.
  21. The statutory provisions that created this offence were repealed by the Theft Act 1968: Griew, Edward. The Theft Acts 1968 and 1978. Fifth Edition. Sweet and Maxwell. 1986. Paragraph 2-01 at page 12.
  22. R v Newland [1954] 1 QB 158, 37 Cr App R 154, CCA: held, no longer to exist, if it ever had
  23. http://www.vanuatu.usp.ac.fj/courses/la205_criminal_law_and_procedure_1/cases/Shaw_v_DPP.html Shaw v DPP
  24. DPP v Withers [1975] AC 842, HL: Held not to be an offence known to law
  25. Repealed by section 17(3) of, and Schedule 2 to, the Bribery Act 2010

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