Criminal Code of England and Wales

The jurisdiction of England and Wales does not have a Criminal Code though such an instrument has been often recommended and attempted. The creation of such a Code would require both consolidation and codification.

The Law Commission views a comprehensive criminal code as desirable in principle, but not currently feasible as a single undertaking. Its present approach is incremental simplification of discrete offence-areas and procedural law, creating code-ready statutes over time.

History

• 1818 - Parliament petitions the Prince Regent for a Law Commission to consolidate English statute law.
• 1831 - A Royal Commission on the Criminal Law was established to enquire into the possibility of a criminal code. The commission reports in 1835 and there are seven more reports until 1845. A Criminal Law Code Bill is introduced, referred to a Select committee and then dropped.
• 1849 - The Royal Commission on Revising and Consolidating the Criminal Law recommends consolidation.
• 1878 - Sir James Fitzjames Stephen introduces a consolidation Bill in Parliament, which is later withdrawn.
• 1879 - The Royal Commission on the Law Relating to Indictable Offences (1871–1879) under Colin Blackburn, Baron Blackburn recommends and drafts a code.
• 1882 - Since 1844 there had been eight unsuccessful attempts to enact a code.
• 1965 - The Law Commission of England and Wales is established with a remit to review the law of England and Wales:

— A Criminal Code team is set up including academic lawyer Professor Sir John Cyril Smith, the outstanding criminal lawyer of his time.

• 1985 - Draft code published.
• 1989 - Draft code revised and expanded.
• 2002 - Government reiterates its intention to proceed with a code.

Arguments for a Code

Attorney-General Sir John Holker said:

Sir John Smith was, in general an opponent of legal codes but said:

Reports of the Royal Commissions

Royal Commission on the Criminal Law

• First to Sixth Reports of the Royal Commission on the Criminal Law (1834, 1836, 1837, 1839, 1840, 1841).
• Seventh and Eighth Reports of the Royal Commission on the Criminal Law (1843).

Royal Commission on Revising and Consolidating the Criminal Law

• First to Fifth Reports of the Royal Commission on Revising and Consolidating the Criminal Law (1845, 1846, 1847, 1847, 1849).

Royal Commission on the Law Relating to Indictable Offences

• Report of the Royal Commission on the Law Relating to Indictable Offences (1879).

Law Commission Reports and Papers

Codification of the Criminal Law: Law Com. Nos 143 and 177

Sources:

• LC 143 (1985). Codification of the Criminal Law: a Report to the Law Commission.
• LC177(1) (1989). A Criminal Code for England and Wales (Vol. 1: Report and Draft Criminal Code Bill).
• LC177(2) (1989). A Criminal Code for England and Wales (Vol. 2: Commentary on Draft Criminal Code Bill).
• Hansard Debates, House of Lords, Vol 508 (22 May 1989), Col 2 56 ‘Law Commission Report No 177’.

For a complete list of Law Commission reports and papers about criminal law generally, see Law Commission Criminal Law Reports and Papers.

Suggested reading

Books

• Smith, K. J. M. (1998). Lawyers, legislators, and theorists: developments in English criminal jurisprudence 1800-1957.
• Cornish, W.R. and Clarke, G. de N. (1989). Law and Society in England 1750–1950.
• Lang, Maurice Eugen (1924). Codification in the British Empire and America.
• Stephen, James Fitzjames. (1877). A Digest of the Criminal Law (Crimes and Punishments).
• Cottu, Charles. (1800). On the Administration of the Criminal Code in England, and the Spirit of the English Government.
• Schofield, Philip; Harris, Jonathan (Eds). Legislator of the world: writings on codification, law, and education (The Collected Works of Jeremy Bentham).

Chapters in books

• Cross, Sir Rupert. (1978). Pages 5–20: The Reports of the Criminal Law Commissioners (1833-1849) and the Abortive Bills of 1853 in Reshaping the Criminal Law: Essays in Honour of Glanville Williams.
• Clive, Eric. (2010). Chapter 4 (pp. 54–69): Codification of the Criminal Law in Essays in Criminal Law in Honour of Sir Gerald Gordon.
• Clarkson, Chris. (2011). Recent Law Reform and Codification of the General Principles of Criminal Law in England and Wales: A Tale of Woe in Codification, Macaulay and the Indian Penal Code: The Legacies and Modern Challenges of Criminal Law Reform.
• Herring, J. (2022: 10th end). Chapter 1 in Criminal Law: Text, Cases, and Materials.

Journal articles

• Chalmers, James. (2014). Frenzied Law Making: Overcriminalization by Numbers (2014) 67(1) Current Legal Problems.
• Lavery, Jenny. (2010). Codification of the Criminal Law: An Attainable Ideal? (2010) 74(6) J. Crim. L. 557.
• Ferguson, Pamela R. (2009). Constructing a criminal code (2009) 20(1) Crim. L.F. 139.
• Dennis, Ian. (2009). RIP: The Criminal Code (1968-2008) (Editorial) [2009] Crim. L.R. 1-2.
• Ferguson, Pamela R. (2009). Codifying criminal law: the Scots and English draft codes compared [2004] Crim. L.R. 105-119.
• Samuels, Alex. (2003). Why do we not have a criminal code? (2003) 67(3) J. Crim. L. 214-219.
• Dennis, Ian. (2003). The Law Commission and codification of the criminal law: Part 35 (Editorial) [2003] Crim. L.R. 431-432.
• Dennis, Ian. (2001). Reviving the criminal code (Editorial) [2001] Crim. L.R. 261-264.
• Farmer, Lindsay (2000). Reconstructing the English Codification Debate: The Criminal Law Commissioners, 1833–45 (2000) 18(2) Law and History Review 397–442.
• Robinson, Paul H. (2000). Structuring Criminal Codes to Perform Their Function (2000) 4(1) Buff. Crim. L.R. 1.
• Arden, Mary (1999). Criminal law at the crossroads: the impact of human rights from the Law Commission's perspective and the need for a code [1999] Crim. L.R. 439-459.
• Bingham of Cornhill, Lord Justice. (1998). A criminal code: must we wait for ever? [1998] Crim. L.R. 694-696.
• Smith, J.C. (1995). The Law Commission's Criminal Law Bill: a good start for the Criminal Code [1995] Stat. L.R. 105-108.
• Brooke, Henry (1995). The Role of the Law Commission in Simplifying Statute Law (1995) 16(1) Stat. L.R. 1.
• Samuels, Alec. (1992). Drafting the criminal code (1992) 13(3) Stat. L.R. 229-239.
• Gardiner, Simon. (1992). Reiterating the Criminal Code (1992) 55(6) M.L.R. 839-847.
• Wells, Celia. (1992). Moral boundaries and criminal codes (1992) 142(6564) N.L.J. 1133-1134.
• Ashworth, Andrew. (1992). Legislating the criminal code [1992] Crim. L.R. 393-395.
• Smith, A.T.H. (1992). Legislating the criminal code: the Law Commission's proposals [1992] Crim. L.R. 396-406.
• Ashworth, Andrew. (1990). Codifying English criminal law (Editorial) [1990] Crim. L.R. 141-142.
• Midland Circuit. (1990). Lord Chief Justice Cockburn's letters on the Criminal Code Bill of 1879 [1990] Crim. L.R. 315-317.
• de Burca, Grainne, and Gardner, Simon (1990). The codification of the criminal law (1990) 10(4) O.J.L.S. 559-571.
• Cowley, David. (1990). Codification of the criminal law (1990) 54(1) J. Crim. L. 98-99.
• Ashworth, Andrew. (1989). A criminal code for England and Wales (Editorial) [1989] 393-394.
• Editorial. (1989). Criminal law codification (1989) 139(6404) NLJ 529.
• Buxton, Richard. (1989). The Law Commission's Criminal Code (1989) 139(6407) N.L.J. 639-640.
• Smith, J.C. (1987). Codification of the criminal law [1987] Denning L.J. 137-150.
• Smith, A.T.H. (1986). Codification of the criminal law - Part 1: The case for a code [1986] Crim. L.R. 285-295.
• Bennion, Francis. (1986). Codification of the criminal law - Part 2: The technique of codification [1986] Crim. L.R. 295-302.
• Ashworth, Andrew. (1986). Codification of the criminal law - Part 3: The draft code, complicity and the inchoate offences [1986] Crim. L.R. 303-314.
• Wells, Celia. (1986). Codification of the criminal law - Part 4: Restatement or reform [1986] Crim. L.R. 314-323.
• Wasik, Martin (1986). Codification: mental disorder and intoxication under the draft criminal code (1986) 50(4) J. Crim. L. 393-404.
• Clarkson, C.M.V., and Keating, H.M. (1986). Codification: offences against the person under the draft criminal code (1986) 50(4) J. Crim. L. 405-431.
• Ashworth, Andrew (1984). Influences on the Creation of Criminal Law and Criminal Policy in England (1984) 13(2) J. Crim. L.955-111.
• Friedland M L, ‘R S Wright’s Model Criminal Code: A Forgotten Chapter in the History of the Criminal Law’ (1981) 1 Oxford J Legal Stud 307.
• Shapiro, Barbara (1974). ‘Codification of the Laws in Seventeenth-Century England’ (1974) Wis. L. Rev. 428.
• Smith, K.J.M. (1975). The Law Commission Working Paper No. 55 on Codification of the Criminal Law, Defences of General Application: Official Investigation and Entrapment [1975] Crim.L.R. 12.
• Andrews J.A. (1969). Codification of Criminal Offences [1969] Crim. L.R. 59.
• Scarman, Leslie (1967) Codification and Judge-Made Law: A Problem of Coexistence [1967] 42 Indiana Law Journal 3.
• Stone, Ferdinand Fairfax (1955). A Primer on Codification (1955) 29 Tul. L. Rev. 303.

See also

• Law reform
• Royal Commission on the Criminal Law (1833-1845)
• Royal Commission on Revising and Consolidating the Criminal Law (1845-1849)
• Royal Commission for Revising and Consolidating the Criminal Law (1871–1879)
• Criminal Law Revision Committee
• Law Commission of England and Wales
• Criminal Law Reform Now Network (CLRNN)

References