Book Review: Blackstone's Criminal Practice 1996
| Published date | 01 August 1996 |
| Date | 01 August 1996 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/002201839606000308 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
BOOK
REVIEWS
Blackstone's Criminal Practice 1996.
EDITED
BY
PETER
MURRAY.
London:
Blackstone Press Ltd. Price: £99 (HB)
There is little left to say
about
Blackstone, except to
throw
up
one's
hands
in a
sort
of
annual
shout
of
rejoicing! As winter gives way to spring, a new edition
appears taking
account
of
all the substantial developments in the fields
of
criminal
law, criminal evidence
and
sentencing, enabling the practitioner to prepare cases
and
then do battle in
court
with the confidence
that
no
important
matters
have
been overlooked. The format changes little,
but
then agreat deal
of
work went
into
assessing the
optimum
size for such a
book
before the first edition hit a
surprised profession, no
doubt
balancing the competing
demands
of
comprehensive-
ness
and
portability.
The
typeface, too, was well chosen
and
the
work
carefully
paragraphed
making
it more accessible
than
its long-established rivals.
Most
important
of
all the team
of
specialist editors continue to display amastery
of
their subject, charting continuing developments such as the disclosure requirements
and
the
growth
of
PH applications, noting guideline judgments,
and
trying to
discern a
pattern
in the
statutory
intervention in the sentencing
process-not
an
easy task to perform! As we understand it, there is editorial
demand
that
the size
of
the
work
does
not
grow,
and
it is therefore a
matter
of
great credit
that
the
onward
march
of
this
branch
of
the law can be recorded without the work
becoming
too
discursive
and
losing its concise lucidity. Indeed such a demand
provides awelcome discipline for the skilled writers on the team and they have all
responded to it in full. There will be those who would like more discussion on
certain topics,
but
they are always pointed to leading cases
and
statutory
authority,
and
can research further. Blackstone in over 2,000 pages
of
text will be all the
practitioner needs in
many
instances. In those where more research needs to be
done, the pages
of
this work will be a very helpful first
port
of
call.
Principles
of
Criminal Law (2nd ed) By
ANDREW
ASHWORTH.
Oxford: Clarendon
Press. Price: £45 (HB); £14.99 (PB)
This
book
is the foundation work
that
many
may wish had been available when
they started to study criminal law as an academic subject.
It
is a foundation work,
but no primer and concentrates on the philosophical basis
under
which
our
law
operates, providing
that
essential framework which enables a full understanding
of
the
corpus
of
our
law, the rationale behind it,
and
the inconsistencies
that
stalk it.
The aim
of
the
author
is initially to identify the principles
and
policies
that
appear
to
playa
significant part, to assess whether they are well founded,
and
then go on
to consider fault requirements before tackling particular crimes. Proceeding in
that
way, by assessing the parameters
of
crime
and
asking why, then looking in the
second
half
of
the
book
at various categories
of
criminal conduct, the reader
receives a first class assessment
of
the disparate doctrines
and
assumptions which
underpin
our
criminal law. This contextualises in a most helpful way what follows
in the rest
of
the work. Professor
Ashworth
is a
tutor
worthy
of
this task. His
distinguished academic background
and
the clarity
of
expression in his writing
illuminate what might otherwise be a
hard
road. As one would expect, the reader
is pointed to a host
of
relevant cases
and
academic treatises,
and
in particular in
the
chapter
dealing with principles
and
policies to the
European
Convention on
Human
Rights, the Law Commission's
Draft
Criminal
Code
and the American
Law Institute's Model Penal Code. Although the law departments
of
universities
may be thought the
natural
consistency for a
book
of
this kind, it deserves the
attention
of
all those who are interested in the criminal law and its future
development.
It
is a seminal work.
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