Review: Mens Rea in Statutory Offences
| DOI | 10.1177/002201835602000113 |
| Published date | 01 January 1956 |
| Date | 01 January 1956 |
| Subject Matter | Review |
104
THE
JOURNAL OF CRIMINAL LAW
We did detect one
error-at
p. 54, where it is stated "legal aid is not
available for ordinary cases before magistrates"; the author is referring to the
long-awaited extension of the provisions of the Legal Aid and Advice Act,
1949, and has overlooked the powers under the Act of 1930.
MENS REA IN STATUTORY OFFENCES, by J. Ll. J.Edwards, M.A., LL.B., Ph.D.
Macmillan and Co.
Ltd.
21S.
net.
This
is the sixth addition to English Studies in Criminal Science emanat-
ing from the Department of Criminal Science, Faculty of Law, University
of Cambridge. Athoughtful study of the doctrine of mens rea in statutory
offences, it concludes with the suggestion that modern legislation and its
judicial interpretation tend to
put
the public interest before considerations
designed to protect the accused, and
that
statutory offences are being
administered with scant regard for the ancient doctrine.
The
learned author
suggests that the time has come to redress the balance.
In
developing his theme, the author considers exhaustively the meaning
of the words malice, wilfulness, knowingly, permitting, etc. and with copious
footnotes leads us to the modern interpretation of those words.
Two
impor-
tant
chapters are those on the criminal degrees of knowledge and vicarious
liability in statutory offences.
The
author makes an important point when
he suggests
that
Parliament is largely in the hands of the draftsman where the
wording of statutory offences is concerned, and that in the fields of public
health, food and drugs, weights and measures, licensing and the nationalised
industries, the fundamental maxim of criminal liability is ignored, largely
without Parliament realising it.
This
thought-provoking book is not for the student alone; it should be
on the shelves of every defending advocate.
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