Lamentable Legislation

Here, via The Law West of Ealing Broadway, is an extract from a recent Court of Appeal judgement that required interpretation of some of the provisions in the Criminal Justice Act 2003.

Here is the practical result of the mania for initiatives that create new crimes.

Thursday, 8th December 2005
B E F O R E:
LORD JUSTICE ROSE, MR JUSTICE CRANE, MR JUSTICE OPENSHAW

THE CROWN PROSECUTION SERVICE (CLAIMANT) -v- SOUTH EAST SURREY YOUTH COURT 9DEFENDANT)

extract from paragraph 14 of the judgement:

So, yet again, the courts are faced with a sample of the deeply confusing provisions of the Criminal Justice Act 2003, and the satellite Statutory Instruments to which it is giving stuttering birth. The most inviting course for this Court to follow, would be for its members, having shaken their heads in despair to hold up their hands and say: 'the Holy Grail of rational interpretation is impossible to find'. But it is not for us to desert our judicial duty, however lamentably others have legislated. But, we find little comfort or assistance in the historic canons of construction for determining the will of Parliament which were fashioned in a more leisurely age and at a time when elegance and clarity of thought and language were to be found in legislation as a matter of course rather than exception.