Book Review: Moriarty No. 20: Moriarty's Police Law
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X7104400108 |
| Author | J. Daniel Devlin |
| Published date | 01 January 1971 |
| Date | 01 January 1971 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
Sentencing
The unpopularity of mandatory suspended sentences is well known.
R. v. Newsome, [1970] 3 W.L.R. 586 is an interesting case on this.
In two cases, Newsome at Suffolk Assizes (Lord Parker, C.J., was the
trial judge) and Browne at Inner London Quarter Sessions (Judge
Llewellyn) sentences
of
six months were passed by the trial judge
who overlooked the mandatory suspension. On the suspension point
being raised Lord Parker Ci.l. changed the sentence to seven months
and Judge Llewellyn to six months and seven days.
It
must be
admitted
that
the error in each case leaves an unfortunate impression
but the decision
of
the
Court
of
Appeal was that the attitude of the
trial judges in seeking to ensure custodial treatment was not wrong.
This is a sensible retention
of
real judicial discretion.
MORIARTY
No. 20
SIR
WILLIAM
J.
WILLIAMS:
Moriarty's Police Law. 20th Edition.
Butterworths.
£1 8s. Od. (By post, £1
lis.
Od.)
If
there is one book which is known intimately by every police officer that
book
is Moriarty,
and
every new edition is therefore an event of some importance
to the Police Service.
For
41 years it has reigned supreme as a student's text-book
and
there appears to be no reason why it should not continue for a further equally
long period. The reason for its success is not difficult to find.
Both
Mr. Moriarty,
the original author,
and
Sir William, his worthy successor, display the rare gift of
being able to express recondite and complicated legal rules
and
concepts in
simple words
that
anyone can understand
and
in a relatively small compass.
However, the task of keeping Moriarty abreast of all the new law, yet of con-
stant size, becomes more and more difficult in the face of the torrent of new
legislation and case-law which characterises the modern legal scene. Sir William
is therefore to be congratulated on the achievement
of
taking into account all
the law of interest to the police with an addition of only 17 pages. As he points
out
in his preface,
"Statutes
affecting the Police are continually being made
more complex
and
the practice
of
bringing various parts of Acts into operation
on divers dates makes the work of editing
both
perplexing and tedious", a cry
from the heart which will find an echo throughout the Service.
The more important
of
the new statutes are the Firearms Act, 1968,
the Theatres Act, 1968, the Theft Act, 1968, the Vehicle
and
Driving Licences
Act, 1968, the Family Law Reform Act, 1969, the Post Office Act, 1969 and the
Children and Young Persons Act, 1969,
and
these are all mentioned in the text.
As a result of the Theft Act, the chapters on "Breaking
In"
and
"Larceny"
which
we all knew so well have had to be re-written and renamed, "Burglary" and
"Theft".
The format
and
arrangement of the new edition remain unchanged, and the
five appendices which were found to be so useful have been retained.
J.
DANIEL
DEVLIN.
54 January 197/
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