Review: Stephen's Digest of the Criminal Law
| Date | 01 January 1951 |
| Published date | 01 January 1951 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002201835101500111 |
| Subject Matter | Review |
112
THE
JOURNAL
OF CRIMINAL LAW
Two other things should be borne in mind.
First
the
new Act does
not
increase
the
maintenance
that
can
be
awarded in orders made under
the
Bastardy
Acts or
the
Guardianship of
Infants
Acts,
and
it
is a
pity
that
oppor-
tunity
was
not
taken
to bring
the
three
types of orders
into
line with regard
to
children. Secondly,
the
rule in Russell
v. Russell
has
at
last
been decently buried
by
s. 7 of
the
Law Reform (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1949. This
will enable
many
amarried woman to affiliate her
bastard
child where she would hitherto have been unable to prove
non-access,
and
so will further increase
the
duties of over-
worked collecting officers.
Review
STEPHEN'S
DIGltST
OF
THE
CRIMINAl,
LAW:
9th
Edition, by
LEWIS
FRltDltRICK
STURGlt.
Sweet &Maxwell,
Ltd.
Price £2 5s. Od.
The
new edition of this well-known classic follows
the
style of earlier
editions
and
its present editor has tackled manfully
the
difficult
task
of
keeping pace with
the
rapid changes in criminal law brought
about
by
new cases
and
legislation. He has
not
entirely succeeded. Articles 339
and
340, for example, dealing with "offences concerning paupers," should
have been entirely omitted. Other references to
the
now obsolete Poor
Law, including
the
Poor
Law
Act, 1930, (cited as 1929 in
the
Table of
Statutes)
and
part
of s. 4 of
the
Vagrancy Act, 1824, show
that
the
pro-
visions of
the
National Assistance Act, 1948,
have
been overlooked.
The
work purports to deal with indictable offences,
but
in fact also
deals with
many
summary offences. This inconsistency
may
lead
the
reader who
has
overlooked
the
words "Indictable Offences" on
the
title
page, to conclude
that
the
work is incomplete,
and
an elaboration of
the
title with some pruning of
the
contents might be considered for
the
next
e
lition
if
this impression is to be avoided.
The
book concludes with atable of offences which is a counterpart
of
that
appearing in Archbold's Criminal Pleading.
The
new edition is well printed on good quality paper
and
has a
reliable index,
and
subject to
what
has
been
stated
above, is as good an
addition to
the
student's
bookshelves as it ever was.
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