Arrest and Right to Consult a Solicitor: PACE Developments
| Author | Andy Khan,Richard V. M. Hall |
| Published date | 01 November 1986 |
| Date | 01 November 1986 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002201838605000410 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
ARREST
AND
RIGHT
TO
CONSULT
A
SOLICITOR:
PACE
DEVELOPMENTS
Andy
Khan** and Richard V. M. Hall*
The
much criticised Eleventh Report of the Criminal Law Revision
Committee on Evidence! had nothing to say as to the desirability of
a legal right of access to legal advice/solicitor for an arrested person
or
asuspect at a police station", According to the Royal
Commission on Criminal Procedure Research Study
No.3,
this
omission is significant "because the issue is one of the most
substantive ones surrounding the investigation process, insofar as it
underlies the problem of the right to silence
...
,,3
Bevan and Lidstone argue that
"the
right of a detained person to
secure legal advice is his most important protection.
The
pressures
of police interrogation and the technicality of the criminal law mean
that the interests of a suspect can only be properly secured after he
has received legal advice':". There is nothing new in this in that
many previous writers have emphasised the importance of this right
to be established". According to Sir Henry Fisher6,astatement
made after the suspect, especially an arrested person in custody at a
••
Professor. Athabasca University, Alberta.
Canada
.
•Solicitor.
\.
Cmnd.
4991 (1972)
HMSO
London.
2. See
Morton
"The
rights of suspects" (1972) 122 New L.J. 805; Ashworth
"Some
blueprints for criminal investigation" [1976)
Crim.L.R.
594; Bater &
Vorenberg
"Arrest,
detention,
interrogation and the right to counsel" [1976J 66
Columbia Law R. 62; Crowley
"The
interrogation of suspects" (1973) 28
International Crim.PoI.R. 203.
3. Royal Commission on Criminal Procedure Research Study
No.3
(1980)
HMSO.
4. A Guide to the Police and Criminal Evidence
Act
1984 (1985) at p. 248.
5. See
Zander
"Access to a solicitor in the police station" [1972]
Crim.L.R.
342;
Zander
"Informing the suspect of his right inthe police station" (1972) 69 Law. Soc.
Gaz. 1238; Glasbeek and Prentice
"The
criminal suspect's illusory right of silence in
the British
Commonwealth"
(1968) 53 Cornell L.Q. 473; Leigh. Police powers in
England and Wales (1975);
Zander.
Police and Criminal Evidence
Act
(1985).
6. Report
of
an Inquiry by the Hon. Sir Henry Fisherinto the circumstances leading
to the trial
of
three persons on charges arising out
of
the death
of
Maxwell Confait and
the fire at 27 Daggett
Road
(1977)
HMSO
London.
442
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