REPORTS OF COMMITTEES
| Date | 01 January 1974 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2230.1974.tb02369.x |
| Published date | 01 January 1974 |
REPORTS
OF
COMMITTEES
THE
LAW
COMMISSION
WORKINQ
PAPER
NUMBER
60
ON
CODIFICATION
OF
THE
CRIMINAL
LAW,
GENERAL
PRINCIPLES
:
INCHOATE
OFFENCES
THE
advent of this working paper has been the optimistic epilogue
to numerous critical articles, comments and judgments on criminal
conspiracy for some time past, but
it
is unlikely that any
of
these
proposals will end up
on
the Statute Book before
1976-77.
A
somewhat muddled approach
to
all three inchoate offences
leads one to believe that either the working party’s provisional,
proposals were published in a spirit
of
compromise between its
members
or,
less charitably, that the reasons for some of the
proposals are insuficiently argued.
The scheme
of
the working paper is to
set
out possible approaches
regarding each aspect of the law and the arguments for and against
these. Unfortunately this scheme is inevitably affected by the
working parity’s
own
provisional proposals and the reader may in
some cases feel cheated
~f
convincing argument against the view
subsequently taken by the working party.
The working paper deals separately
in
turn with each of the
three inchoate
offences
and afterwaxdg deals with problems common
to all. The more controversial
of
the proposals are in the fields
of conspiracy and attempt. This review however is confined to
those sections
of
the paper dealing with criminal conspiracy which
may be studied under the following headings.
1.
cc
The
Unlawful Act
”
Doctrine
said that an indictment for
conspiracy must
‘‘
charge
a conspiracy
to
do
an unlawful act
or
a
lawful act
by
unlaurful means.)’
In three subsequent
cases,’
realising the effect
of
Jones,
he made
it
clear that by the word
unlawful
”
he meant only a criminal offence. But his decision
in
Jones
was far more suitable to a judiciary wishing
to
create new
offences to deal with the
trades
unions. Legislation was necessary
to stop this trend and in
1875
the Conspiracy and Protection
of
Property Act was passed. However Lord Denman’s formula, with
one limb amputated, was not forgotten and has recently been used
to serve the needs of a new judiciary anxious
to
create offences,
this time
to
deal with pornography and demonstrations.
In
1882
Lord Denman in
Jones
1
4
B.
&
Ad.
346.
2
Seward
(1884)
1
Ad.
&
E.
706;
Peck
(1W)
9
Ad.
&
E.
686;
King
(1844)
7
Q.B.
78.
67
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