In the Scottish Courts
| DOI | 10.1177/002201836202600306 |
| Published date | 01 July 1962 |
| Date | 01 July 1962 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
In the Scottish Courts
RECENT LEGISLATION AFFECTING PROCEDURE
WIT H the modern trend in favour of the rehabilitation of
offenders, particularly first and youthful offenders, it is
hardly surprising to find
that
the
powers of
the
Courts are
being, if not restricted, hedged about more and more with
provisions requiring information about those appearing before
them. In many cases, of course,
the
extent of the Court's
power to punish is not interfered with,
but
the Court is required
to obtain additional information before passing sentence.
In Vol. 24 (196o) at page 131 we referred to
the
case of
Jamieson v. Heatly where aMagistrate in a Juvenile Court
sentenced two boys to detention in a remand home, without
obtaining areport on their home surroundings, as he was
required to do in accordance with
the
Juvenile Courts (Pro-
cedure) (Scotland) Rules, 1951. In
the
course of his opinion
in
that
case
the
Lord
Justice Clerk (Lord Thomson) said
"Before
the
Court proceeds to deal with a charge against a
young person it must get information from a Probation
Officer" and later he pointed out
that
the
Judge ought to have
had before him information about
the
home, or he ought to
have continued the case in order
that
the
necessary informa-
tion should have become available.
It
may be remembered that s. 18 (2)ofthe Criminal Justice
(Scotland) Act, 1949, provided
that
"no
court shall impose
imprisonment on a person under 21 unless" and
then
followed
arequirement
that
the
Court should obtain information about
his circumstances, character, physical and mental condition.
That
was followed on
rjth
April 1960, by
the
First Offenders
Act, which prevents aCourt sentencing any first offender to a
prison sentence unless
"no
other method of dealing with him
is appropriate", and to decide this
the
court
must
obtain
information similar to that required by s. 18 (2) of
the
1949,
Act. In Morrison v. Clark (1962,
S.L.T.
II3),
which was
the
207
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