Drunk as a Lord?

The Law Commission has just produced a useful report called Intoxication and Criminal Liability.

As the Government’s law reform advisers point out, many crimes are committed while the offender is under the influence of alcohol or other drugs. I suspect that the figures are going up.

Though there is nothing particularly wrong with the courts’ approach to intoxication, the law is unclear and difficult to apply. That is because it is common law, laid down by judges over the past 150 years.

I won’t try to explain why the law is so confusing. Suffice it to say that liability depends on whether a particular offence is one of “specific intent” or “basic intent”.

So the Law Commission has come up with a new draft Bill, listing the states of mind to which self-induced intoxication would be relevant.

The trouble with this is that successive governments have never been very interested. The Law Commission made similar proposals as long ago as 1995, though the new proposals are a little crisper.

Prof Jeremy Horder is the Law Commissioner responsible for today’s report. I asked him why he thought the Government should devote scarce Parliamentary time to implementing his recommendations.

“There is always going to be a risk that the Court of Appeal or House of Lords will decide to ‘go a bit softer’ on crime — if one can use that phrase — in one of these areas.

“So far, the courts have not wavered much; they have taken a robust approach. But it’s not beyond the bounds of possibility that the House of Lords would take a more generous approach, of the kind that is taken in some jurisdictions.”

In Prof Horder’s view, the appeal courts might respond to a rise in the prison population by relaxing the rules and allowing more people to use intoxication as a defence. Ministers should press on with legislation.

“Do this now and you may rest assured that, whatever may happen, this essentially sound and sensible set of rules will prevail. It’s always dangerous to leave such important matters to the House of Lords — because they may get it wrong.”

Posted at January 15, 2009 12:01 AM