Coping with ultimate evil through the criminal law

Editor in Chief,Criminal Law Forum: An International Journal; Distinguished Professor, Rutgers University School of Law, Camden, New Jersey, United States; B.A., Victoria University of Wellington 1964; LL.B., Victoria University of Wellington 1964; LL.M., Victoria University of Wellington 1967; LL.M., Columbia University 1968; J.S.D., Columbia University 1972.     

Stocktaking after two sessions of the commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice

B.A., Victoria University of Wellington 1964; LL.B., Victoria University of Wellington 1964; LL.M., Victoria University of Wellington 1967; LL.M., Columbia University 1968; J.S.D., Columbia University 1972. Professor Clark was a member of the former United Nations Committee on Crime Prevention and Control and represented New Zealand as an observer at the first two meetings of the United Nations Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice. Any views expressed here are his own.See generally Roger S. Clark,United Nations Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Program: Formulation of Standards and Efforts at Their Implementation (forthcoming 1994).     

Developments in criminal law and criminal justice

LL.B., Victoria University of Wellington 1969; J.S.M., Stanford University 1972.     

Criminal law theory and criminal code reform

M.A., University of Tartu 1979; Ph.D., All-Union Institute of Criminology (Moscow) 1986; LL.M., Columbia University 1993.     

The Canadian charter and the protection of international human rights

B.A., University of Alberta 1960; LL.B., University of Alberta 1961; LL.M., University of California at Berkeley 1963.     

Extenuating circumstances in capital offenses in Botswana

LL.B., University of East Africa 1968; M.C.J., Howard University 1970; LL.M., New York University 1971; J.S.D., New York University 1975.     

Juvenile offenders

LL.B., Leeds University 1955; LL.M., University of Singapore 1963.     

Tales of law and morality

B.A. (hons.), Acadia University 1982; B.A. (juris.), Oxford University 1984; LL.B., Dalhousie University 1985; B.C.L., Oxford University 1986; M.A., Oxford University 1991.     

Anchoring just deserts

B.A., Wheaton College 1971; J.D., DePaul University 1975; LL.M., Georgetown University 1993.     

Theme and variations on criminal law

B.A., City College of New York 1973; J.D., American University 1976; LL.M., New York University 1980.     

The cases of Alfred Dreyfus,Mendel Beilis,and Leo Frank

B.A., City College of New York 1973; J.D., American University 1976; LL.M., New York University 1980.     

Soviet criminal law

LL.B., Harvard Law School 1966; M.A., Harvard University 1966.     

The argot of the gulag

LL.B., Harvard Law School 1966; M.A., Harvard University 1966.     

REVIEWS

The Worker and the Law. First edition. By Professor K. W. Wedderburn, M.A., LL.B. The Restrictive Practices Court. By R. B. Stevens and B. S. Yamey. Sale of Goods. By G. H. L. Fridman, B.C.L., M.A. (Oxon), LL.M. (Adelaide). Casebook on Sale of Goods. By E. R. Hardy Ivamy, LL.B., PH.D. Charlesworth's Company Law. Eighth edition. By T. E. Cain, M.A., Barrister-at Law. Essentials of Mercantile Law. By Kenneth Smith and Denis J. Keenan. International Law. By D. P. O'Connell. The Sources and Evidences of International Law. By Clive Parry. Rights in Air Space. By David Johnson. The Law and Practice of the International Court. By Shabtai Rosenne. The Constitutions of the Australian States. Second edition. By R. D. Lumb, LL.B.(Melb.), D.PHIL.(Oxon), Senior Lecturer in Law, University of Queensland. Law and Orders. By Sir Carleton Kemp Allen. Third edition. The Language of the Law. Selected and edited by Louis Blom-Cooper, assisted by Edward Jackson, with a Foreword by Lord Radcliffe. The Rent Act 1965. By Ashley Bramall, M.A., Barrister-at-Law. Matrimonial Offences with particular reference to the Magistrates' Courts. By Lionel Rosen, LL.M., PH.D.(lond.), Solicitor Second Edition. Politics and Law. By Gerhard Leibholz, Justice Associate of the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe, Professor at the University of Göttingen, Titular Professor at the College of Europe at Bruges.     

Sentencing commissions: Lessons for future reformers

1978–1982, Director, Minnesota Sentencing Guidelines Commission, St. Paul, Minnesota, U.S.A.; B.A., University of Oklahoma 1964; M.A., University of Oklahoma 1966.     

REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article: Lives of the Lord Chancellors , 1885–1940. By R. F. V. Heuston On Justice in Society . By Morris Ginsberg The Disinherited and the Law. By Dagobert D. Runes The Law of Quasi -Contract . By S. J. Stoljar , LL.B., LL.M., PH.D. Conveyancing Contracts , Conditions of Sale and Title . By J. T. Farrand , LL.B., Solicitor The Borderland of Criminal Justice . Essays in Law and Criminology. By Francis A. Allen , University Professor in the Law School at the University of Chicago Crime and the Community . A Survey of Penal Policy in New Zealand Völkerrecht . By Ignaz Seidl -Hohenveldern Federal Conflict of Interest Law . By Bayless Manning     

Recent New Zealand efforts to combat environmental crime

Conclusion The question is what legal tools are the most effective to deal with significant and continued attacks on finite environmental resources. Is there a risk that environmental statutes and monetary sanctions imposed thereunder will be seen merely as tiresome regulations carrying nominal penalties, the payment of which is no more than a legitimate cost of doing business? Will the fact that such statutes include, as an ultimate sanction, imprisonment alter this perception? Will resort to prosecution under the traditional criminal law of fraud on the public provide a substantial disincentive to environmental offending, where corporate officers can anticipate a criminal conviction and the loss of liberty in the event of detection?If the statement of the Court of Appeal in Walters is a guide, then the trend in New Zealand is likely to be imprisonment of offenders convicted of environmental crimes. Prosecutions under the Crimes Act will brand transgressors as criminals, and not as risk-taking entrepreneurs. The tools are available--which will the community use, a traditional criminal prosecution of environmental criminals, or prosecution under specific environmental statutes?This note is a revised version of a paper originally presented at the eighth international conference of the Society for the Reform of Criminal Law, Hong Kong, December 4–8, 1994.LL.B., Victoria University of Wellington 1971.     

Alternatives to imprisonment in Kenya

Conclusion In spite of the wide variety of sentencing options available in Kenya, the courts overwhelmingly choose to sanction by imprisonment. Even default on the payment of a fine can lead to a prison term where extramural penal employment would at the very least be more economical and more beneficial to the community. In my view, the main purpose of penal policy is to provide an opportunity for the offender to reintegrate himself or herself into society and to rectify the damage both to the victim and to society caused by the crime. Imprisonment frustrates these objectives and should be reserved for habitual serious offenders and for grave offenses that do not readily lend themselves to alternative sanctions. Even in such cases, however, compensation can be ordered in addition to a prison term.Settlement, restitution, and similar approaches should become routine for all minor offenses. Putting primary reliance on alternative sanctions should produce considerable savings in costs and in manpower, alleviating some of the pressure now experienced by an overburdened criminal justice system. To derive the greatest benefit from alternative sanctions, we need also to review and integrate indigenous traditions of community-based dispute resolution into the statutory structure.This is a revised version of a paper presented at a sentencing workshop organized by the Society for the Reform of Criminal Law, the Legal Resources Foundation, and the Law Development Commission, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, September 1–5, 1993.I am grateful to Professor Daniel Van Ness, Legal Advisor on Criminal Justice to the Government of Malta; and to Madeleine Sann, Director of Publication,Criminal Law Forum, for their suggestions.M.S., Vikram University (Ujjain, India) 1968; LL.B., Vikram University 1975; LL.M., University of London 1976.     

Innocent agency and causation

Q.C. (honorary) 1968; LL.B. (hons.), University of Wales 1931; Ph.D., University of Cambridge 1936; LL.D., University of Cambridge 1946.     

International norms on execution of the insane and the mentally retarded

Conclusion Victor Hugo considered the death penalty to be the hallmark of barbarity. 104 International human rights law clearly contemplates abolition of the death penalty. To some extent, it has succeeded in promoting universal and imperative norms, as in the case of the prohibitions on torture and slavery. 105 With respect to the death penalty, results have been more gradual and the effort has met with more opposition. Although international norms now exist prohibiting the death penalty, 106 they are not yet widely ratified. This is why international organizations dedicated to the promotion of human rights have insisted upon strict limitation of the death penalty, including its total exclusion for certain categories, such as juveniles, pregnant women, the elderly, and the insane.No treaty provision exists to exclude the insane from the death penalty. The conclusion that this prohibition represents a customary norm is an important one, with consequences not only in international law but also in domestic law since many states consider customary international law to be a part of their domestic law. Wherever a court concludes that in the absence of any domestic statutory provision to the contrary, customary international human rights law prohibits execution of an insane prisoner, a small step will be taken away from the barbarism lamented by Hugo.B.A., University of Toronto 1972; M.A., University of Toronto 1973; LL.B., University of Montreal 1983; LL.M., University of Montreal 1990; LL.D., University of Montreal 1993.