Contempt of Court
| DOI | 10.1177/002201834100500111 |
| Published date | 01 January 1941 |
| Date | 01 January 1941 |
Contempt
of
Court.1
THE
law relating to contempt of court is in a somewhat
uncertain state, partly owing to the unsystematic
treatment it hasreceivedin legal treatises.
This
neglect
can be attributed to the fact that decisions on thesubject
affect various unrelated branches of thelaw such as
defamation, criminal law, and general criminal procedure
raising constitutional issues; and what has been called
"
civil"
contempt relates mainlyto the enforcement of
judgments in civil actions. In recent years contempt of
court has shown powersof development not always, perhaps,
for the public good. Certainly some criticism has been
aroused.
It
is desirable, in the interests of order, that judges
should have wide powers of summary punishment in the
case of contempts intheface of the court, such as creating
adisturbance during a trialor casting aprojectile at the
Bench,
but
in thecase of constructive contempt, such as
prejudicing a fair trialor criticizing ajudge out of court,
other considerations have weight.
All these offencesare punishable in summary fashion,
not by formalindictment
and
jury
trial,
but
by attachment
and fine orimprisonment at the discretion of thecourt.
Nor
is there any right of appeal against the
court's"
finding ",
for the Court of Criminal Appeal onlyhas jurisdiction
over
"convictions"
on
"indictment
or
information".
Accordingly, it is not surprising to readwarnings against
too free an exerciseof the jurisdiction.
Goddard
J.
has
said
that"
ajurisdiction
under
which the
Court
had power
to commit persons to prison without the intervention of a
jury
1
Other
articles on
this
subject
will be
found
in Vol.
III
at
pp.
288, 291,
91
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