The Criminal Law Consolidation Acts 1861 (24 & 25 Vict. cc. 94 – 100) were

Acts The Acts of the Apostles ( grc-koi, Πράξεις Ἀποστόλων, ''Práxeis Apostólōn''; la, Actūs Apostolōrum) is the fifth book of the New Testament; it tells of the founding of the Christian Church and the spread of its message ...

of the

Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprema ...

. They consolidated provisions from a large number of earlier

statutes A statute is a formal written enactment of a legislative authority that governs the legal entities of a city, state, or country by way of consent. Typically, statutes command or prohibit something, or declare policy. Statutes are rules made by le ...

which were then repealed. Their purpose was to simplify the criminal law. There were six consolidation Acts and a further Act which effected consequential repeals. They are essentially revised versions of an earlier set of consolidation Acts, commonly known as

Peel's Acts Peel's Acts (as they are commonly known) were Acts of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. They consolidated provisions from a large number of earlier statutes which were then repealed. Their purpose was to simplify the criminal law. The term re ...

, incorporating subsequent statutes. They were drafted by Charles Sprengel Greaves.

List of the Acts

Accessories and Abettors Act 1861 The Accessories and Abettors Act 1861 (24 & 25 Vict. c.94) is a mainly repealed Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It consolidated statutory English criminal law related to accomplices, including many class ...

c. 94 :

Criminal Statutes Repeal Act 1861 The Act 24 & 25 Vict. c. 95, sometimes referred to as the Criminal Statutes Repeal Act 1861, was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. This Act was repealed by section 1(1) of, and Schedule 1 to, the Statute Law Revision Act 1950. It ...

c. 95 :

Larceny Act 1861 The Larceny Act 1861 (24 & 25 Vict c 96) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (as it then was). It consolidated provisions related to larceny and similar offences from a number of earlier statutes into ...

c. 96 :

Malicious Damage Act 1861 The Malicious Damage Act 1861 (24 & 25 Vict c 97) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (as it then was). It consolidated provisions related to malicious damage from a number of earlier statutes into a s ...

c. 97 :

Forgery Act 1861 The Forgery Act 1861 (24 & 25 Vict c 98) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (as it then was). It consolidated provisions related to forgery from a number of earlier statutes into a single Act. For the ...

c. 98 :

Coinage Offences Act 1861 The Coinage Offences Act 1861 ( 24 & 25 Vict. c. 99) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which codified various coinage offences. It was repealed and replaced by the Coinage Offences Act 1936. The statute provides that whoev ...

c. 99 : Offences Against the Person Act 1861 c. 100 Of these statutes, the Criminal Statutes Repeal Act, the Larceny Act and the Coinage Offences Act have been repealed in England and Wales. The majority of the provisions of Accessories and Abettors Act, the Malicious Damage Act and the Forgery Act have been repealed and the last two have been practically superseded by codification Acts. However, the bulk of the Offences Against the Person Act remains in force.

Interpretation

Internal evidence of meaning by comparison of enactments In his commentary on these Acts, their draftsman said: This passage was cited and approved by Lord Steyn i
''R v. Burstow'', ''R v. Ireland''

998 Year 998 ( CMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * Spring – Otto III retakes Rome and restores power in the papal city. Crescenti ...

1 Cr App Rep 177,

997 Year 997 (Roman numerals, CMXCVII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Japan * 1 February: Empress Teishi gives birth to Princess Shushi - she is the first ...

3 WLR 534,

AC 147,

UKHL 34,

4 All ER 225, (24 July 1997) (this case related to the significance of the appearance of "cause" and "inflict" respectively in sections 18 and 20 of the Offences against the Person Act 1861).

Common features

Short titles None of these Acts was originally provided with a

short title In certain jurisdictions, including the United Kingdom and other Westminster-influenced jurisdictions (such as Canada or Australia), as well as the United States and the Philippines, primary legislation has both a short title and a long title. Th ...

. The short titles were conferred by the

Short Titles Act 1896 The Short Titles Act 1896 (59 & 60 Vict c 14) is an Acts of Parliament in the United Kingdom, Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It replaces the Short Titles Act 1892. This Act was retained for the Republic of Ireland by section 2(2)(a ...

Passage through Parliament

Hansard (House of Lords)
17 April 1860, vol.157, col. 1873 (nomination of select committee)
Hansard (House of Lords)
7 May 1860, vol.158, col. 747 (report of select committee)
Hansard (House of Lords)
10 May 1860, vol.158, col. 999 - 1001 (committee)

Derivative legislation

The Canadian criminal law consolidation Acts of 1869 were based on the criminal law consolidation Acts 1861, and taken almost textually from them. The Tasmanian Acts 27 Vict. Nos. 5 - 10 were framed from the Imperial Acts 24 & 25 Vict c 94 and cc 96 - 100.Charles A W Rocher. The Tasmanian Criminal Law Consolidation and Amendment Acts of the 27th Victoria. J Walch & Sons. Hobart Town and Launceston. Tasmania. Simpkin, Marshall & Co. London. 1864
Page x

References

*Charles Sprengel Greaves, The Criminal Law Consolidation and Amendment Acts. Second Edition. V R Stevens, Sons, Haynes, H Sweet and W Maxwell. London. 1862

*

James Edward Davis James Edward Davis (1817 - 1887) was called to the bar at the Middle Temple in 1842, was stipendiary magistrate at Stoke upon Trent from 1864 to 1870, was police magistrate at Sheffield from 1870 to 1874, and was a friend of Leigh Hunt. Works D ...

. The Criminal Law Consolidation Statutes of the 24 & 25 of Victoria, Chapters 94 to 100: Edited with Notes, Critical and Explanatory. Butterworths. 1861
Digitized copy
from

Google Books Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical c ...

. *T W Saunders and Edward W Cox. The Criminal Law Consolidation Acts, 1861. First Edition. John Crockford. London. 1861

Second Edition. 1862

*

John Frederick Archbold John Frederick Archbold (1785–1870) was a barrister and legal writer. He was the first editor of the English criminal law textbook '' Archbold Criminal Pleading, Evidence and Practice'', which is still routinely used in court today. Life He ...

. The Consolidated Criminal Statutes of England and Ireland. Simpkin, Marshall & Co. London. Hodges & Smith. Dublin. Bell & Bradfute. Edinburgh. 1861
Google Books
*James Bigg. Criminal Law Consolidation: The Public General Acts consolidating the Criminal Law of England and Ireland. Second Edition. Waterlow and Sons. Vacher and Sons. P S King. Westminster. 1868
Google Books
{{UK legislation English criminal law United Kingdom Acts of Parliament 1861 1861 in British law