Substantive English Criminal Law

Sun, 05 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Sources and Structure

English criminal law remains uncodified, deriving from both common law (judge-made law developed through precedent) and statute. The absence of a comprehensive criminal code distinguishes England from virtually all other common law and civil law jurisdictions. The Law Commission has advocated codification since its establishment in 1965, producing a draft Criminal Code in 1989 and several subsequent codification projects, but Parliament has enacted only piecemeal reforms. Major statutory codifications include the Theft Acts 1968-1978 (consolidating property offences), the Criminal Damage Act 1971, the Sexual Offences Act 2003 (comprehensively reforming sexual offences), the Fraud Act 2006 (creating a general fraud offence), and the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007. The result is a hybrid system in which general principles — definitions of intention, recklessness, causation, and defences — remain largely governed by common law, while specific offences are defined by statute.

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Substantive English Criminal Law

Sources and Structure