Reports of Committees
| Date | 01 March 1964 |
| Published date | 01 March 1964 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2230.1964.tb01023.x |
REPORTS
OF
COMMITTEES
CRIMINAL
LAW
REVISION
COMMITTEE
:
THIRD
AND
FOURTH
REPORTS
THE first two reports of the Criminal Law Revision Committee
were concerned with modest reforms of the substantive criminal
law on matters of
a
non-controversial nature. They were quickly
implemented by legi~lation.~ The third and fourth reports are
mainly concerned with procedure and although they raise slightly
more controversial questions the final recommendations of the
Committee are likely to find general acceptance. One hopes, there-
fore, that legislation will follow as speedily as before.
Insanity
Since the introduction of the defence of diminished responsibility
ip
1957
and the comprehensive overhaul of the mental health laws
by the Mental Health Act,
1959,
the previously unsatisfactory state
of the law of insanity in its application to criminal procedure has
become unnecessarily complex, uncertain, and not infrequently
unjust. The problems arising under the present state of the law
were considered by the Committee in its third report under five
headings,
viz.,
(1)
the form of the special verdict,
(2)
the procedure
to be adopted for determining the issue of fitness to be tried,
(3)
appeals against
a
special verdict
or
finding of unfitness to plead,
(4)
the treatment of persons found not guilty by reason
of
insanity
or
unfit to plead, and
(5)
the power of the prosecution to adduce
evidence relevant to the accused’s abnormality of mind.
Form
of
special verdict
The Committee has given its approval to the proposals made by
the Atkin Committee on Insanity and Crime and the Royal
Commission
on
Capital Punishment that the present verdict
of
“guilty, but insane
”
should be changed to reflect the fact that
it is in substance
an
acquittal. The proposal that the verdict
should be
‘‘
not guilty by reason of insanity
”
would therefore
involve a return to the practice which prevailed during the first
eighty-odd years
of
the nineteenth century. Nevertheless
it
should
still be regarded as a desirable
‘‘
reform
”
of the law.
*
Cmnds. 2148 and 2149 (September 1963).
2 Cmnds. 835 and 1187.
3
Indecency
with
Children
Act,
1960;
Suicide
Act, 1961.
4
Cmd. 1005 (1923).
5 Cmd. 8932 (1953).
203
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