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GAZETTE
i SEPTEMBER 1991
Blackstone's
"Criminal
Practice"
[Ed. Peter Murphy,
(Blackstone Press, Ltd., London
1991 ISBN 185431. 001 1)]
The Preface to this weighty tome
announces that the last time a new
work was published in the field of
criminal law, dealing comprehen-
sively with all aspects of sub-
stantive law and procedure required
by practitioners, was 1822. That
date marked publication of the first
edition of Archbold whose stated
aim was " t o compress the whole
into the smallest possible compass
consistent w i th pe r sp i cu i t y"
(Preface (V) ). With time, that
volume has correspondingly grown,
and the particular publication here
under review, attempts to fill the
resultant gap for a comprehensive
single work aimed at the criminal
law practitioner.
This volume does not aim to be
all-inclusive and sacrifices such
overtly for the sake of portability.
The bias in favour of material which
is truly essential to modern day
criminal work is made initially and
without reservation, thus dictating
the structure and contents of the
book.
Part A contains the general
principles of criminal law; Part B the
substantive law itself; Part C the
more important road t r a f f ic
offences; D criminal procedure; E
sentencing and F the rules of
evidence.
Significantly, despite its practical
slant, the work does not sacrifice
academic analysis. This is a
welcome development, as too
often recent works and publica-
tions of a legal nature draw what
some might consider an artificial
distinction between the needs of
practice and those of the academic.
While the t wo may not be
synonymous, too often is it
assumed that they are entirely
distinct. Such distinction impover-
ishes a work, particularly in the
criminal field where appellate
tribunals, in particular, demand a
depth of analysis and familiarity
with the nuances of academic de-
bate, which both informs and in
turn is informed by, the stuff of
practice.
Hence the inclusion of Part A, in
particular, with its discussion of
general principles of criminal liability
is to be welcomed by practitioners
and academics alike. On a basic
level, it is self-evident, that if any
work is to survive - despite con-
stant updating on a yearly basis as
here anticipated - the plethora of
emerging novel offences, then those
general principles of criminal liability
which apply whatever the relevant
criminal code, merit sufficient
review.
To highlight some aspects of Part
A of the volume: the section on
Actus Reus
contains a succinct
summary of basic elements from
causation and voluntariness to the
'egg-shell' rule sufficiently clearly
to be accessible to any first year
student of criminal law, without
being overly simplistic.
'Mens rea'
receives similar treatment. Of
course, the summary may at times
for the sake of brevity appear
cursory; and the tension and
conceptual difficulty in considering
these principles in isolation from
given offences (experienced alike
by the criminal law teacher), is
evident, yet the authors do manage
to strike if not a happy balance, an
acceptable one. One could criticise
for example the treatment of
intention - particularly in the
context of murder - as being
unduly dismissive or brief, yet if the
authors were to indulge academic
arguments, this single volume
would indeed have become several.
Issue could be taken, however, with
the authors' practice of commenc-
ing each section with a brief (if not
bald) statement of the law in the
area, which if not followed through
by the reader might prove mis-
leading. For instance, in the context
of the concept of 'intention' it is
stated (p.19) that
"A person clearly intends a
consequence if he wants that
consequence to follow from
his action. This is so whether
the consequence is very likely
or very unlikely to result. Thus
an abcused who shoots at
another wanting to kill him;
intends to kill whether the
intended victim is 2 metres
away or an easy target or
whether he is 200 metres
away and it would have taken
an exceptionally good shot to
hit him. In either case, even if
the accused misses, he will
be liable for a crime requiring
intention to kill, such as
attempted murder."
Given the recent debate
regarding the complexity and
confusion of 'intention' particularly
in relation to murder, such a
statement although obviously
accessible to any reader may, in its
equation of intention with desire,
appear somewhat misleading, if
not glib.
However, it is a tribute to the text
that these lapses are rare, and
perhaps inevitable, in what is after
all but one section of a large
volume, not wholly devoted to such
issues.
This leads us to the strength of
the text: its attempt to address the
practitioner's need for an overall
perspective on all rules relating to
criminal practice: not adhering to
the artificial distinction made
between areas of study, which in
any case overlap in the courtroom;
but rather pursuing a sequential
analysis of each area of law rele-
vant to a criminal case. Obviously
for the Irish practitioner some
sections will prove more useful
than others - those dealing with
the list of offences/procedure being
somewhat irrelevant, except to the
extent of correspondence between
the jurisdictions, due to our
somewhat slavish adherence to
British legislative precedents.
Moreover, given the absence of
such works devoted exclusively to
Irish law, and the continuing
popularity of Archbold with the
Irish Criminal Bar, it is probable that
most Irish criminal law practitioners
will find this tome a useful addition
to their shelf.
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