The law on non-fatal offences against the person is no stranger to review. The lack of consequent real statutory amendments/reform to the aged statutory and common law definitions may lead the observer to wonder whether there is any need for reform. Or, whether the entrenched law covering such a spectrum of ‘injuries’ (from being threatened to being one short step from being killed) is so complicated a matter that successive British governments steer a clear line away from opening such a Pandora’s box. As a result, circuit judges must arguably waste time in explaining complicated definitions to juries.
The lack of statutory movement on previous recommendations has not stopped the Law Commission (LC) from trying again. Its 2015 report (‘Offences Against the Person — Modernising the Law on Violence’) is aimed at modifying the previous recommendations already suggested by the Home Office’s draft bill in 1998 (based on previous LC recommendations) to bring inter alia the main non-fatal offences into a scheme of offences that is structured in a more logical manner to provide greater clarity in the offences’ interpretations, and ensures cases are tried in the most appropriate level of court given the gravity and complexity of the circumstances.
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