Book Review: Blac4kstone's Guide to the Criminal Justice Act 1991
| DOI | 10.1177/002201839205600209 |
| Published date | 01 May 1992 |
| Date | 01 May 1992 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
BOOK
REVIEWS
Blackstone's Guide to the Criminal Justice
Act
1991. By
MARTIN
WASIK
and
RICHARD
D
TAYLOR,
London: Blackstone Press. Price £16.95
(paperback).
This is a thoroughly workmanlike commentary on the Criminal Justice Act
1991 which deserves to be widely studied. The Act has been criticised in
some quarters for not being sufficiently radical, but there can be little
doubt that it will take its place as a major reforming statute, particularly
in the field of sentencing. Tightly circumscribed restrictions on the use of
custody, the ability for courts to impose community sentences including a
number of community orders, combination orders of probation and
community service under s 11, and the scheme for the introduction of unit
fines, are all going to keep those working in the criminal courts busy.
But
there is much more to the Act than that.
It
changes the framework within
which children give evidence, it reforms the law dealing with parole, and,
although of less importance at first hand for the criminal law practitioner
it alters the existing law to authorise cash limiting of the magistrates' courts
and probation services. In the longer term that could have a substantial
effect on the running of the lower courts.
The
authors, with great facility and clarity of style, deal with these
changes, as well as others which are less important. Their commentary,
well broken up by sub-headings and paragraphs, follows the order of the
Act, and in the early chapters dealing with the important sentencing
reforms, there are frequent references to existing Court of Appeal
decisions.
The
second half of the book contains the Act itself, including
its Schedules, so that the reader can easily refer from the text of the
commentary to the precise wording of the Act.
It
is difficult to overestimate
the value of the book in assisting practitioners to become accustomed to
the whole range of changes which will follow from the implementation of
the Act later this year.
Archbold1992-CriminalPleading, Evidence and Practice,General Editor:
P J
RICHARDSON,
London: Sweet &Maxwell. Price £195.
If
it had been suggested that the criminal practitioner's 'bible' could
become even more comprehensive and useful, few would have believed
it.
But
many more would have argued that Archbold should have an
improved layout, and be more 'user friendly'. The 1992 edition has been
recast in so many ways, and all of them represent an improvement on
what went before. The impression is that Archbold had become stale.
Changes in the criminal law, evidence and procedure, together with all
the leading cases were of course faithfully included as edition succeeded
edition, but a major overhaul was needed and that has been achieved.
The
editors can feel proud of the results of what must have been a
195
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