Traffic Problems Have No Frontiers
| Published date | 01 April 1958 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X5803100212 |
| Date | 01 April 1958 |
| Author | Polonius |
| Subject Matter | Article |
136
THE
POLICE JOURNAL
This apparent Crown immunity from prosecution for almost all
offences seems detrimental to the community.
The
remedy would be
legislation, which need not disturb the criginal common law presump-
tion that the king can do no wrong.
It
would apply all statutes to the
Crown with the exception of those particularly exempting the Crown
from prosecution. These exemptions would require parliamentary
approval thus providing an additional safeguard against anomalies
such as those mentioned.
The period has seen the passing of the feudal system with its despotic
lords, the lessening of the power in the personal hands of the sovereign
and the consequential increase in the power of the Crown.
It
would
appear that, if the position of the nationalised industries and under-
takings is to be a guide, the trend will be to withdraw gradually, by
means of legislation, the advantage enjoyed by some Crown depart-
ments to the detriment of the general public as a whole.
There is no doubt that the ever-thickening crust of immunity in
which the Crown has slowly encased itself has at last been
breached-
not widely, but
surely-at
least by some of the laws governing such
nationalised undertakings and by the Crown Proceedings Act, 1947,
which went a long way to making the Crown fully liable in tort.
Another generation may see the Crown and the individual equally
liable for criminal offences and we shall then be back to the original
common law presumption: "The King
alone-not
the Crown---ean
do no wrong."
REFERENCES
IHalsbury's
Laws
of
England. Second Edition,
Vol
VI, p. 443.
2(1904) 2 K.B. 164.
3(1950) 1 K.B. 18. (1949) 2
All
E.R. 327.
4(1889) 24
Q.B.D.
181.
5Halsbury's Laws
of
England. Second Edition. Vol.
XXXI.
p. 523.
6Halsbury's
Laws
of
England. Second Edition. Vol. VI. p. 455.
"Criminal
Law-The
General Part by Glanville L. Williams,
LL.D.
(Cantab.)
p. 631.
8(1950) 2 K.B. 119.
Traffic Problems have no Frontiers
TRAFFIC problems know no frontiers and in all but the most
backward countries the toll of life and injury on the road has
become a major social disease as well as a serious economic problem.
The
police-because
of their twin responsibilities to protect life
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