ANTIQUATED LAWS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 18961, 11 March 1936, Page 13

ANTIQUATED LAWS

INQUIRY IN BRITAIN

RULE OP OUTLAWRY

If the recommendations made in the third and final report of the Business of Courts Committee, are adopted, some strange and ancient laws will be abolished. The report was issued last bightLord Hanworth, formerly Master of the Rolls, was chairman of the committeeThe recommendations dealt with questions of Crown Office rules, procedure in patent actions, and the affidavit ot ships’ papers. It is pointed out that the Crown Olliee rules wore first made in 1886. and have now become out ol date.

One of tli? most remarkable laws with which the committee deal is that of outlawry. By Crown Office rule, u man who has failed to appear in a criminal case afj.er he lias been given several chances to do so, may he outlawed. In Such civcmiistanres, the outlaw was liable tp be killed and his goods confiscated. :

The report slates that the precedin'' Inis' not been' used for three-quarters of a century, “and now appears to be unworkable. ’ ’

ARTICLES OF REACT

Another ancient code which the rnmniittee recommend for abolition is fin 1 exhibition of Articles .of ‘the Renee.

By tliis law a mini threatened and m fear of 1 1 is life is 1 entitled to exhibit in tile, King’s Beiich Division a document entitled the Articles of the. I’.eaee, setting out' the fads of his ease. 11 the articles are received by the court, a writ of attachment is issued' against the defendant,, who is made to enter info a recognisance to keep the peace. Undyr modern procedure application is made to the magistrates under the Summary Jurisdiction Act, 1897, by which, the defendant can be hound over to keep the peace. An interesting .recommendation concerns criminal informations. These are of two kinds —informations filed exofficio by the Att(U'ney,-General, and informations (Tied with the leave of Hie court ‘by the Muster of the Crown Office ■it the instance of a private prosecutor. There have been few cases of either kind in the last luilf-eenlnry.

The committee see some advantage in preserving the first class of informations and recommends its preservation because of its value when secrecy is desirable.

The case of Rex v. Mylins in 1911 is quoted. This 'was the action for libel brought by King Qcortre V against a mini named Mylins. In that case an ex officio information was laid. R XTR ACT IN f i A I’OLOGJES. The second class of informations wn:< not uncommon in cases of criminal libel, ft, was found to be a convenient method of extracting an apology and cleaving the prosecutor’s character, upon ter],ns ot withdrawing the proceedings. The recommendation that simpler pro erdnre should rcplnce the quo warranto informations relates to cases where municipal elections are challenged. 11 a nerson wishes to unseat, a mayor or alderman, on a question of irregularity in election methods, a, warrant can be sought in tlie King’s Bench Division.