Recent Book: An Introduction to Criminal Procedure: Criminal Procedure
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X6904201004 |
| Published date | 01 October 1969 |
| Date | 01 October 1969 |
| Author | J. C. Wood |
| Subject Matter | Recent Book |
vision of the future is of highly skilled, well-paid professional police
officers backed by all sorts of unskilled and specialist workers and,
in particular, buttressed by a strong reserve of amateur police
officers. Doctors could well be taken as a model, because, for the
police as well as the medical profession, going it alone is a prescrip-
tion for failure.
RECE
NT
BOOKS
THE
COSTS OF CRIME
GRAHAM
GREEN:
Criminal Costs and Legal Aid. Second Edition.
Butterworths, 90s.
This formidable work is now in its
second edition and it provides a mine
of information about a much neglected
aspect of the judicial system. Barris-
ters, policemen and the like rarely
consider the cost involved of the court
cases in which they take part. Occa-
sionally there are requests for an award
to cover some aspect of the costs such
as an advocate's fee. It will be obvious
to anyone who thinks for a minute that
there needs to be, and indeed there is,
a most complicated hierarchy of rules
about costs and the ancillary question
of legal aid. These rules are to be found
clearly set out in this book which also
prints all the necessary statutes and
regulations, some hundred pages of the
necessary precedents. It is in no way a
reading book but for those who have
need of specialized information it is a
valuable guide to the preliminaries of
the financial aspects of criminal
action. J. C. WOOD.
AN INTRODUCTION TO CRIMINAL PROCEDURE
ROGER
ARGUILE:
Criminal Procedure. Butterworths, 44s.
Criminal procedure is a subject of
central importance which has never
really attracted text writers. Practi-
tioners are served by weighty tomes
such as Archbold and Stone. It is
pleasant to have a good, clear, short
introduction. Arguile is basically for
bar students. The author frankly shows
in the preface that he owes much to the
larger standard works. Nonetheless, he
is to be congratulated in producing a
readable and accurate introduction to
the subject. Like all introductions it
has the fault of over-simplification and
the author, who has teaching experi-
October 1969
ence and now is a practising barrister,
seems to err towards the academic
approach. It would be hard to define
from his book that criminal procedure
does vary from place to place, admit-
tedly in minor details. The book is, of
course, weakest when it deals with
disposal. Its summaries of types of
offender and more especially of types
of punishment are far too short to even
hint at the intricacy that besets Judges
and supplies a ready stream of case
law. Nonetheless, the author has pro-
duced a readable and useful book on
criminal procedure. J. C. WOOD.
434
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