scholarly journals Unlawful and Dangerous

2017 ◽  
Vol 81 (2) ◽  
pp. 143-160
Author(s):  
Tony Storey

The crime of unlawful act manslaughter (otherwise known as constructive manslaughter) exists in English and Australian common law. It is also an offence contrary to the Canadian Criminal Code. In all three jurisdictions the offence shares the same essential elements, including the requirements that the accused commit an act which is both unlawful and dangerous. This article will explore the case law on unlawful act manslaughter in Australia, Canada and England, focusing on the elements of an unlawful act and dangerousness, in order to identify similarities and differences in the application of the law in the three jurisdictions. Where differences are found, consideration will be given to the question whether English law should be reformulated.

Author(s):  
John B. Nann ◽  
Morris L. Cohen

This chapter describes current sources and techniques useful for finding seventeenth- and eighteenth-century laws of England and introduces some methods an attorney in England in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries might have used. Before researchers can find the law, they must know what was considered to be the source of law in the period being investigated. Reporting, publishing, and finding cases has been important in English law for centuries. Parliamentary enactments during the colonial period also play an important part in the framework surrounding any particular legal issue. Meanwhile, English law is built on a foundation of common law, which is built on case law. As such, finding cases that relate to a particular topic is critical in research. A good case-finding option is a digest of cases; these have been written over the centuries, as have abridgments and treatises on particular areas of law.


1974 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 568-579
Author(s):  
Gabriel Bach

A few days after the State of Israel was established in 1948 a law was passed by the Provisional Council of State which enacted, that the law in force in Palestine on the eve of the creation of the new State should remain in force in Israel, with such modification as the establishment of the State and its organs rendered necessary, until varied or revoked by the legislative organs of the State.That meant, in effect, that as far as Criminal Law and Procedure were concerned, the rules of English law were retained by the State of Israel.The substantive criminal law, the Criminal Code Ordinance, as enacted by the British Mandatory Administration for Palestine, is still in force in Israel, except for those parts that have been repealed or amended by the Israel legislature. This Ordinance was enacted in 1936 and constitutes an attempt to codify the English Common law. Similar laws were passed by the British Colonial Administrations in Sudan (1924) and in Cyprus (1929).Under one of the provisions of this Ordinance, the Code and the expressions used in it have to be interpreted and construed in accordance with the rules of English law and interpretation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 70 (2) ◽  
pp. 271-305
Author(s):  
Paula Giliker

AbstractThe law of tort (or extra or non-contractual liability) has been criticised for being imprecise and lacking coherence. Legal systems have sought to systemise its rules in a number of ways. While civil law systems generally place tort law in a civil code, common law systems have favoured case-law development supported by limited statutory intervention consolidating existing legal rules. In both systems, case law plays a significant role in maintaining the flexibility and adaptability of the law. This article will examine, comparatively, different means of systemising the law of tort, contrasting civil law codification (taking the example of recent French proposals to update the tort provisions of the Code civil) with common law statutory consolidation and case-law intervention (using examples taken from English and Australian law). In examining the degree to which these formal means of systemisation are capable of improving the accessibility, intelligibility, clarity and predictability of the law of tort, it will also address the role played by informal sources, be they ambitious restatements of law or other means. It will be argued that given the nature of tort law, at best, any form of systemisation (be it formal or informal) can only seek to minimise any lack of precision and coherence. However, as this comparative study shows, further steps are needed, both in updating outdated codal provisions and rethinking the type of legal scholarship that might best assist the courts.


Author(s):  
Geoff O’Dea ◽  
Julian Long ◽  
Alexandra Smyth

This new guide to schemes of arrangement draws together all of the elements of the law and practice concerning both creditor and member schemes. Member schemes of arrangement have become the preferred method of implementing takeovers in the UK. Creditor schemes of arrangement are increasingly used in restructuring matters and the trend in their usage in foreign companies is likely to continue as many credit documents across Europe are arranged and underwritten in London under English law. The book considers the effect given to an English scheme in foreign jurisdictions, and other Private International Law issues. A major issue for those considering a scheme for creditors is whether a scheme or CVA (Company Voluntary Arrangement) is more appropriate and this book assists the reader by including an analysis of the pros and cons of schemes and CVAs. There are very few sources of information on schemes of arrangement and the area takes much of its substance from case law. This book, addressing the law and practical issues faced by practitioners on a day-to-day basis, is a first in the field.


Criminologie ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-26
Author(s):  
Pierre Landreville ◽  
Chantal Lavergne

Bill C-51 passed by the Canadian Parliament in 1985 and the publicity surrounding this legislation led many people to believe that a new crime regarding impaired driving had been created. This Bill, however, was to simply increase the penalty for drunk driving in the case of a first conviction. In fact, the penal solution to the “problem” of drunk driving is not new; in 1921 the offence of impaired driving was first introduced into the Code. This article examines the evolution of the prohibition of driving under the influence of alcohol in the Canadian Criminal Code and the enforcement of this law in Canada, in Quebec and in Ontario from 1921 to 1973. The first part presents the evolution of legislation concerning impaired driving. It goes through six important phases and covers the period from 1921 to 1973. The second part presents the statistical data used in our study. We also consider the reliability and validity of the data used. In the last part, we analyze the implementation of the law on infractions relating to drunk driving in a state of drunkeness indictable offence and summary conviction offence driving under the influence of alcohol or a drug (indictable offence and summary conviction offence), and finally, refusal to furnish a sample of breath (summary conviction offence). In conclusion, we present several recommendations based on the results of our analysis.


Author(s):  
Hook Maria

This chapter examines the choice of law rules that determine the law applicable to international contracts in New Zealand, comparing them to the Hague Principles. Private international law in New Zealand is still largely a common law subject, and the choice of law rules on international commercial contracts are no exception. The general position, which has been inherited from English common law, is that parties may choose the law applicable to their contract, and that the law with the closest and most real connection applies in the absence of choice. There are currently no plans in New Zealand for legislative reform, so the task of interpreting and developing the choice of law rules continues to fall to the courts. When performing this task, New Zealand courts have traditionally turned to English case law for assistance. But they may be willing, in future, to widen their scope of inquiry, given that the English rules have long since been Europeanized. It is conceivable, in this context, that the Hague Principles may be treated as a source of persuasive authority, provided they are consistent with the general principles or policies underlying the New Zealand rules.


Author(s):  
Kurt X. Metzmeier

The introduction provides the background history of American law reporting. After the American Revolution, the early law reporters helped create a new common law inspired by the law of England but fully grounded in the printed decisions of American judges. English law reports, whose reporters eventually achieved the same authority as their reports, were the model. It took time for the first state opinions to appear in print because publication was not commercially feasible. The first law reporters collected the opinions of the court, selected the best, and financed their printing; later they received state subsidies. The early Kentucky law reports were extensions of the personalities of their creators, an individualistic group of rising young lawyers, future and former judges, aspiring politicians, and enterprising journalists. The history of Kentucky courts and the state’s political environment are also surveyed.


2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 397-429 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Kearns

This essay argues that the 1675 conviction of John Taylor by the Court of King's Bench for slandering God reveals Chief Justice Matthew Hale implementing a model of conjoint law-making between courts, Parliament, and crown that gave pre-eminent power to the common lawyers, and none to the Church of England. In doing so, it counters the prevailing literature on Restoration English law, which has treated the law as hierarchical, with the common lawyers subordinate to the sovereign. Rather than following statute or ecclesiastical law, which emphasised the spiritual nature of crimes like Taylor's, Hale located Taylor's offence in the exclusively temporal common law jurisdiction of defamation, which existed largely outside of monarchical purview. Hale's judgment reflected his rhetoric of judicial office outside the courtroom, where he argued the judiciary worked alongside King and Parliament in making law, but were not subservient to these institutions, for common lawyers relied on sources of law beyond sovereign-made statute. The language of sovereignty as hierarchical was thus a factional attack on an independent common law, an attempt to subordinate the common lawyers to the crown that was resisted by the lawyers like Hale in his rhetoric and exercise of office, and should not ground accounts of the Restoration regime.


1972 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. R. Glazebrook

The sharp contrast between the vast number of detailed statutory provisions defining particular offences and the small handful of widely phrased provisions concerned with the general principles of criminal liability is, perhaps, the most striking feature of English criminal law, and, like the continued co-existence of both common law and statutory offences, one of the unhappy consequences of England's failure to enact a penal code. Among the few statutory provisions laying down general principles of liability or excuse there is none which comprehends a defence of necessity, and so commentators have inevitably looked to the case law for an answer to the question: Is there in English criminal law a defence of necessity? by which they have meant: Is there a defence of necessity in the sense in which there is a defence of, for instance, insanity, or infancy, or duress or prevention of crime? To the question understood in that sense, the answer returned must, it is thought, be a plain No. To ask and to answer the question in that sense may, however, be misleading: it may be more revealing (as this paper suggests) to ask, How does English law handle the plea of necessity when it arises? What, in other words, is the juristic technique employed?


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