Codification of Criminal Law

Michael Bohlander is Professor of Law at Durham University, UK and Daley Birkett is Research Associate at Human Rights Law Centre, University of Nottingham, UK.

• Contents: Introduction; Part I Forming a Criminal Code: A primer on codification, Ferdinand Fairfax Stone; Structuring criminal codes to perform their function, Paul H. Robinson; Codification of the criminal law (1): the case for a code, A.T.H. Smith; Codification of the criminal law (2): the technique of codification, Francis Bennion; Codification of the criminal law (3): the draft code, complicity and the inchoate offences, Andrew Ashworth; Codification of the criminal law (4): restatement or reform, Celia Wells. Part II Attempts at Codification in England and Wales, and the British Empire: Codification of the laws in seventeenth century England, Barbara Shapiro; Reconstructing the English codification debate: the Criminal Law Commissioners 1833-45, Lindsay Farmer; R.S. Wright’s Model Criminal Code: a forgotten chapter in the history of the criminal law, M.L. Friedland; The codification of the criminal law, Gráinne de Búrca and Simon Gardner; A criminal code: must we wait for ever?, Lord Bingham; Criminal law at the crossroads: the impact of human rights from the Law Commission’s perspective and the need for a code, Mrs Justice Arden. Part III A Comparative Perspective: The challenge of a model penal code, Herbert Wechsler; The five worst (and five best) American criminal codes, Paul H. Robinson, Michael T. Cahill and Usman Mohammad; Jurisprudence in the criminal law, G.L. Radbruch; An empire of light? Learning and lawmaking in the history of German law, Stefan Vogenauer; An empire of light? II: learning and lawmaking in Germany today, Stefan Vogenauer. Part IV Some Benefits and Drawbacks of Codification: On circumstances favouring codification, Mirjan Damaška; Codification and judge-made law: a problem of coexistence, Mr Justice Scarman; Here lies the Common Law: rest in peace, H.R. Hahlo (including comment by L.C.B. Gower); Ibi renascit jus commune, M.R. Topping and J.P.M. Vandenlinden; Codifying the common law: protracted gestation, H.R. Hahlo; Codification and law reform: some lessons from the Canadian experience, Gilles Létourneau and Stanley A. Cohen; Codification of the criminal law: an attainable ideal?, Jenny Lavery. Name index.