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Criminal omissions and public duties: the French experience

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Andrew Ashworth  and
Eva Steiner
Andrew Ashworth
Affiliation:
King’s College, London
Eva Steiner
Affiliation:
King’s College, London
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Extract

Whether or not the events of 1992 will have significant effects on the criminal law, there is good reason for looking hard at those respects in which English criminal laws differ in scope from those of our European neighbours and partners. One obvious example concerns crimes of omission, especially those founded on public duties. German law has long had offences of failing to render assistance to a person in peril and similar offences are to be found in other countries such as Denmark, Finland, Italy, Russia and Spain. These laws stand in contrast to the English position, which remains essentially the same as Sir James Fitzjames Stephen described it in 1883:

Type
Research Article
Information
Legal Studies , Volume 10 , Issue 2 , July 1990 , pp. 153 - 164
Copyright
Copyright © Society of Legal Scholars 1990

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References

1 See G P Fletcher, ‘Criminal Omissions: Some Perspectives’ (1976) 24 Am J Comp L 703, and his Rethinking Criminal Law (1978) ch 8.2.

2 General discussions may be found in volume 14 of the American Journal of Comparative Law (1966, especially the article by Feldbrugge, ‘Good and Bad Samaritans’, at p 630) and in the 1984 volume of the Revue Internationale de Droit Penal (especially the article by Robinson at p 635).

3 J F Stephen, History of Criminal Law (1883) vol III, p 10.

4 Law Com No 177, A Criminal Code for England and Wales (1989), vol 2, para 7.13.

5 Law Corn No 143, Codification of the Criminal Law: a Report to the Law Commission (1985), clause 20.

6 ‘What should the Code do about omissions? (1987) 7 Legal Studies 92 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

7 Law Corn No 177, vol 2, paras 7.9 to 7.13.

8 Ibid, para 7.11.

9 A Ashworth, ‘The Scope of Criminal Liability for Omissions’ (1989) 105 LQR 424.

10 Ibid, and see the classic article by Graham Hughes, ‘Criminal Omissions’ (1960) 67 Yale LJ 590.

11 Loysel, Les Institutes Coutumiers, no 779.

12 A Tunc, Dalloz, 1946 Legislation, p 33.

13 Eg Garcon, Code Pénal Annoté, art 295 no 16, 28, art 309 to 311 no 47; Le Poittevin and Hemard, note under Poitiers 20 November 1901, quoted below, note 16.

14 See Merle and Vitu, Traité de Droit Criminel, 6th edn, p 563; Robinson, ‘Criminal Liability for Omissions: a brief summary and critique of the law in the United States’ (1984) Rev Intern de Droit Penal 635.

15 Compare the less committed approach of English courts to the principle of legality and its implications: see A T H Smith, ‘Judicial Lawmaking in the Criminal Law’ (1984) 100 LQR 46.

16 Poitiers, November 1901, S 1902.2.305, note Hemard; D 1902.2.81, note Le Poittevin.

17 Eg Crim 30 November 1974, Revue Science Criminelle, 1975, 143.

18 Eg Crim 12 November 1984 Bull 343; Crim 17 November 1987 Bull 416.

19 Crim 26 November 1980 Bull 322; Crim 3 January 1985 Bull 6; Crim 27 October 1987, Revue Science Criminelle, 1988, p 546.

20 For English discussion, see Ashworth 105 LQR at pp 437–438.

21 Beraud, ‘L'omission punissable’, JCP 1944, I, no 433(2); see also note by Roux under Crim 26 October 1912, Sirey 1914, I, 225.

22 Article R40-6 Penal Code.

23 Article L218 Public Health Code.

24 Article 357–2 Penal Code, the offence of abandon de famille..

25 Article 197, law of 25 January 1985.

26 Article 458, law of 24 July 1966.

27 Ibid..

28 A law passed during the German occupation, on 25 October 1941, included an offence of failing to report to the authorities the commission or any plan to commit a crime (article 2) and an offence of failing to assist persons in peril (article 4).

29 See the wording of the ordinance of 25 June 1945, which introduced the new articles 62 and 63.

30 Magnol, JCP 1946, I, 531; Tunc, D 1946 Legislation, p 33.

31 Crim 24 June 1980 Bull 202.

32 This, of course, would be equally possible in English law. But there may be no offence in English law if death does not result.

33 Crim 21 January 1954 D 1954.224; in French law it is an infraction formelle rather than an infraction de résultat..

34 Crim 11 April 1964 Bull 113.

35 Crim 26 November 1969 Bull 137.

36 Crim 31 May 1949 D 1949.347, JCP 1949.II.4995; Crim 21 January 1954 D 1954.224, JCP 1954.II.8050; Crim 17 November 1959 D 1960.398.

37 Tribunal correctionnel of Rouen, July 1975, JCP 1976.11.18258, D 1976.531.

38 Court of Appeal of Montpellier, 17 February 1953 D 1953.209; Court of Appeal of Besancon, 16 December 1975 D 1976.166.

39 20 March 1947, D 1947.304.

40 22 June 1954, D 1954.603.

41 Crim 23 March 1953, D 1953.371.

42 Above, note 38.

43 Crim 1 February 1955, D 1955.354.

44 Crim 21 January 1954, D 1954.224.

45 Court of Appeal of Bordeaux, 28 October 1953, D 1954.13.

46 Crim 20 February 1958 Bull 186, D 1958.534.

47 Crim 17 February 1972, D 1972.325.

48 Crim 16 March 1972, D 1972.394.

49 Court of Appeal of Montpellier, 17 February 1953, D 1953.209.

50 Court of Appeal of Grenoble, 9 April, D 1954.375.

51 Court of Appeal of Paris, 6 November 1984, Crim 22 April 1986 Bull 136.

52 Crim 29 June 1967 JCP 1968.11.15377.

53 Crim 1 February 1955 Bull 104.

54 Tribunal Correctionnel of Paris, November 1985, D 1986.369; Court of Appeal of Paris, 28 November 1986 and Crim 26 April 1988 Bull 178 p 459.

55 Law of 31 December 1987, adding articles 318–1 and 318–2 to the Penal Code; cf s 2(1), Suicide Act 1961.

56 Laws of 15 June 1971 and 2 February 1981.

57 Article 378 Penal Code.

58 Crim 2 March 1961, D 1962.121 note P Bouzat, JCP 1961.11.12092, note Larguier; see also the earlier decision, Crim 17 April 1957 Bull 311, p 573, which first adopted this approach.

59 Vouin-Rassat, Droit Pénal Spécial, Dalloz, 5th ed, p 554.

60 The avant-projet of reform of the Penal Code currently under consideration provides a higher maximum fine of 500,000 francs.

61 Tribunal correctionnel of Lille, 27 June 1950, JCP 1950.11.5837; Crim 18 January 1951, JCP 1951.11.6234.

62 Crim 4 May 1951, D 1951.452.

63 Crim 17 December 1959, D 1960.151.

64 Article 60, Penal Code.

65 Notably in Du Cros u Lambourne [1907] 1 KB 40 and in Tuck v Robson [1970] 1 WLR 741, discussed by Ashworth, 105 LQR 445–447.

66 See, for example, Brown (1841) Car & M 314: the current standing of this and related decisions is discussed by A T H Smith, Offences against Public Order (1987) para 4.11.

67 Sexual Offences Act 1985, s 1, implementing the 16th Report of the Criminal Law Revision Committee, Prostitution in the Street, (Cmnd 9329 of 1984).

68 See n 66 supra. However, until 1967 English law had an offence of misprision of felony, which a person committed by concealing or keeping secret the knowledge that a felony had been committed instead of disclosing it to the proper authority: see Sykes u DPP [1962] AC 528. There remains such an offence where the information relates to an act of terrorism: Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act 1984, s 11.