Terence Morris

Louis Blom-Cooper

For more than three centuries the criminal law has given rise to a divergent set of approaches to the crime of homicide. Whereas the law of murder has not conceptually changed,the crime of manslaughter has resulted in some forms of homicide being visited with relatively minor penalties. These various categories of unlawful killing present considerable problems relating to intention, or lack of it, and the culpability of those whose behaviour, while lacking in evident malice, is characterised by the grossest recklessness. The reaction of the relatives of victims is generally simpler. They frequently find it impossible to understand how those who kill by dangerous or drunken driving may receive comparatively lenient sentences, while those convicted of manslaughter following a drunken brawl may be dealt with more severely, and yet others, convicted of so-called 'mercy killings', are subject to the mandatory penalty of life imprisonment. This book addresses the powerful and controversial arguments for the current distinctions between murder, manslaughter and other specific categories of crime to be abolished and subsumed within a single crime of culpable homicide. In the course of this analysis the authors consider a number of issues of great contemporary importance, including the presentation of expert evidence in cases involving unexplained infant death, corporate killing, and the question of the defences available to the accused, including self-defence and provocation, where popular notions of what is reasonable or justifiable may be at variance with legal precedent. While this book aims to consider criminal homicide in its social, historical and legal setting, it also goes far beyond in setting out the case for radical reform.

A Study of the Crime and Punishment for Homicide

With Malice Aforethought

Louis Jacques Blom-Cooper

Why 60% of the Prison Population Should Not Be There

The Penalty of Imprisonment

This book is a powerful commentary on the law of murder (and other unlawful killings), as well as its history, modern-day development, wholesale deficiencies, and unjust penal consequences. Written by two of the UK's leading and most forthright commentators, the book examines what Lord Judge in his Foreword describes as 'trenchant views' on correcting two particular strands of deficiency: the present definition of murder and the penalty for that offense. It will be of importance to lawyers, academics, students, and others wishing to understand better these key issues at a time of change. It is a definitive account of the most serious offense in the criminal calendar, as well as the impact of the mandatory sentence of life imprisonment for murder on some 8,000 serving prisoners. At a time when the UK's Law Commission has suggested a division of murder into two categories - with manslaughter remaining, and a review of sentencing as a whole is imminent - the book focuses on earlier lamentable failures to deal with the problems of definition and sentencing which began with the UK's Homicide Act 1957 and were not addressed at the time of the abolition of capital punishment a decade later. Taking as a main focus the extraordinarily controversial decision of the House of Lords in the case of DPP v Smith (1960), the book contains fresh insights, based on a close study of that and the earlier case of R v Hedley and Jenkins (1945). The authors demonstrate how politics, law-making, judicial decision-making, and myth somehow became intertwined in a way that would now be unacceptable in a more transparent, rights conscious, and informed age.

Murder, Manslaughter and the Unlawful Taking of Human Life

Fine Lines and Distinctions

Gavin Drewry

Charles Blake

Civil justice has been undergoing a massive transformation. There have been big changes in the management of judicial business; the Human Rights Act 1988 has had a pervasive impact; the Constitutional Reform Act 2005 has effected many changes - notably, the prospective transfer of the appellate jurisdiction of the House of Lords to a new Supreme Court. Against this backcloth of radical change, this book looks at the recent history and the present-day operation of the civil division of the Court of Appeal - a court that, despite its pivotal position, has attracted surprisingly little scholarly attention. It examines the impact of the permission to appeal requirements, and the way in which applications - particularly those by litigants in person - are handled; it looks at the working methods of the Lords Justices and at the leadership of the Court by recent Masters of the Rolls; it considers the relationship between the Court and the House of Lords - looking at high-profile cases in which the Court has been reversed by the Lords. Notwithstanding the impending arrival of the Supreme Court, it concludes that 'the Court of Appeal will remain firmly in place, occupying its crucial position as, to all intents and purposes, the court of last resort-indeed, a supreme court-for most civil appellants.'

The Court of Appeal

Over the years of the developing judicial review of ministerial and governmental decisions, Louis Blom-Cooper was a leading advocate who grew up with the advent of a distinctive brand of public law. His range of public activities, both in and outwith the courtroom, saw him dubbed by his colleagues as a polymath practitioner.It included chairmanship of plural public inquiries in child abuse and mental health, media contributions in the broadsheet press and in broadcasting, and innovation in penal reform, as an ardent campaigner for the abolition of capital punishment and a plea for a modern Homicide Act. He styled himself as a modern, reconstructed liberal – a man before his time. This collection of essays is uniquely prefaced by a self-examination of his unorthodox philosophy towards the law in action. It covers a variety of socio-legal topics that expresses his ambition to inform a poorly-educated public on the workings of the legal system. This aim involves a discussion of the constitutional history of Britain, unwritten and insufficiently interpreted; it reflects a commitment to the European Convention on Human Rights and portrays its international origins. The collection opines on crime and punishment; in the functioning of the courts and elsewhere the political shift from the penal optimism of the 1970s to the reactionary punitiveness of the post-1990s. The essays conclude with a miscellany of affairs, reflecting on professional practices and their product of judicial heroes in Lord Reid and Lord Bingham.

Essays by a Very Public Lawyer

Power of Persuasion

Throughout the twentieth century, administrations have wrestled with allaying public concern over national disasters and social scandals. This book seeks to describe historically the use of public inquiries, and demonstrates why their methods continued to deploy until 1998 the ingrained habits of lawyers, particularly by issuing warning letters in order to safeguard witnesses who might be to blame. Under the influence of Lord Justice Salmon, the vital concern about systems and services allotted to social problems was relegated to the identification of individual blameworthiness. The book explains why the last inquiry under that system, into the events of 'Bloody Sunday' under Lord Saville's chairmanship, cost £200 million and took twelve and a half years (instead of two years). 'Never again', was the Government's muted cry as the method of investigating the public concern was eventually replaced by the Inquiries Act 2005, by common consent a good piece of legislation. The overriding principle of fairness to witnesses was confirmed by Parliament to those who are 'core participants' to the event, but with limited rights to participate. The public inquiry, the author asserts, is now publicly administered as a Commission of Inquiry, and is correctly regarded as a branch of public administration that focuses on the systemic question of what went wrong, as opposed to which individuals were to blame.

Wrong Route on Bloody Sunday

Public Inquiries

Terrence Morris

Written by two of the UKs leading experts on the law of homicide. Contains new information and analysis. Suggests a radical new solution to the mess which English homicide law has become. In this powerful account, the authors show thatfrom Sir Edward Cokes classic common law definition of murder, through political fixes, poorly thought-out compromises and misguided legislative or Executive tinkeringthe English law of homicide is in a mess. Even the most adept legal minds are faced with what has been described in Parliament as fine lines and distinctions. What must juries make of messy laws and how can anyone have confidence in criminal justice if laws affecting some of the most serious offences in the criminal calendar are deeply flawed? To make matters worse, the entire subject of homicide in England and Wales is further distorted by the existence of the mandatory life sentence for murder. Building on unrivalled knowledge, extensive research, close practical observation and incisive analysis, Professor Terence Morris and Sir Louis Blom-Cooper QC trace the development of the law of homicide from early times to the present day. They counter and dismantle specious arguments for preserving the status quo and point out that only root and branch reform of the basis of liability for homicide and its sentencing regime will serve to restore justice, fairness and political probity. Professor Terence Morris and Sir Louis Blom-Cooper QC are two of the UKs leading experts on the law of homicide, having studied developments together for over 50 years. This has led them to recognise the extent of disquiet, especially following particularly troubling cases and to conclude that the law of homicide in England and Wales is an unsatisfactory law enveloped in a political fix. Their suggestion of a replacement single offence of criminal homicide coupled with abolition of the mandatory life sentence for murder in favour of discretion at the sentencing stage demands close study by judges, lawyers, legislators, academics, penal reformers and anyone who senses that something is seriously amiss. 'This is no dry legal tome. The authors present their case in a bracing, persuasive and highly readable way... This is an important and stimulating work that should engage not just the legal practitioner, politician or law student but anyone concerned with our justice system or puzzled by the conduct and outcome of a murder trial': guardian.co.uk 'Fine Lines and Distinctions prompted me to pay more attention to and reflect further on those who have killed. Though its primary focus is the law - specifically a potentially significant improvement to the law - I also warmly recommend it to anyone interested in lifers': Independent Monitor 'This timely, provocative and certainly topical book puts forward a closely argued and well supported case for encouraging "a root and branch reform of the law of homicide" ... [and] provides ample evidence and ammunition to those who would agree that such a reform should be put in place as a matter of urgency': by Phillip Taylor MBE and Elizabeth Taylor of Richmond Green Chambers.

Louis Blom-Cooper

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