Notes on the Criminal Law Act, 1967
| Published date | 01 November 1967 |
| Date | 01 November 1967 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0032258X6704001111 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
PROFESSOR
J.
C.
WOOD,
LL.M.,
The University of Sheffield
Legal Correspondent
of
THE
POLICE
JOURNAL
NOTES ON
THE
URIMINAL
LAW
AUT.,
1967
The recommendations of the Criminal Law Revision Com-
mittee, Seventh Report on Felonies and Misdemeanours, which
was published in May, 1965 (Cmnd. 2659), have at last been
force on January 1, 1968. Anyone who has to master the detailed
reasons for the change would be advised to consult this report.
In it is printed adraft Bill which, with very minor amendment,
forms the first 12 sections, that is to say part I, of the new Act.
The deceptively simple kernel of the Act is the abolition of
the distinction between felonies and misdemeanours,
[so
1(1)].
Where distinctions have previously existed the special felony rules
are abolished and the misdemeanour practice is substituted. This
provision has several results. Three familiar features of trial of
felony will disappear - giving the accused into charge of a
jury; the need for the presence of the accused at all stages of
a trial and the allocutus. This last, misunderstood,
"Have
you
anything to say before sentence is passed on you according to
law",
was a formal invitation to enter a special plea - benefit
of clergy is the best known, but most of its significance has dis-
appeared into the mists of history and it is now only used as a
somewhat perplexing request for a further plea in mitigation.
Other features of felony also disappear. The maximum punish-
ment for a person convicted of felony a second time was life
imprisonment, conviction of felony brought several disqualifica-
tions and there was a rule which did not allow an action in
tort before the felony had been prosecuted. The vagaries of our
legal system are well illustrated by the parenthesis in the Act
equating piracy with felony.
It
is not invariably a felony and
so has to be specially mentioned so that the same results can be
achieved.
All the foregoing may fairly be said to be more quaint than of
fundamental importance and the reform of these rules has not
achieved a great deal. Of much greater significance is the distinc-
tion in the special rules of arrest which apply when the crime is a
felony. These rules are the result of the growth of the common
law through cases. They, of course, fall to the ground with the
abolition of felony but s. 2 replaces them with a statutory system.
The basis of the new rules is the arrestable offence. Such an offence
November
1967 533
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