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‘Can I help you?’ accessorial liability and the intention to assist

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

R. A. Duff
R. A. Duff*
Affiliation:
University of Stirling
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Extract

Aiding and abetting requires an ‘intention’ to assist the commission of the relevant offence. But what should ‘intention’ mean in this context? Does D have that intention just so long as she acts in a way which she knows will facilitate the commission of the offence which P intends to commit, or must she act in order to assist the commission of that offence?

On one view knowledge is sufficient, since D need only have ‘intended to do the acts which he knew to be capable of assisting or encouraging the commission of the crime’. A brewer who knowingly sells beer to someone who intends to resell it without a licence is guilty of aiding and abetting, as is a person who lends her car to someone who intends, she knows, to use it for a criminal venture.

Type
Research Article
Information
Legal Studies , Volume 10 , Issue 2 , July 1990 , pp. 165 - 181
Copyright
Copyright © Society of Legal Scholars 1990

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References

1 J. C. Smith & B. Hogan, Criminal Law (6th edn, Butterworths, 1988) 138–9; see also R Buxton, ‘Complicity in the Criminal Code’ (1969) 85 LQR 252.

2 Cook v Stockwell [1915] 79 JP 394; see also Cafferata v Wilson [1936] 3 All ER 149.

3 Bullock [1955] 1 WLR 1.

4 NCB v Gamble [1959] 1 QB 11.

5 Lomas [1913] 9 Cr App Rep 220, as explained in Bullock; see NCB v Gamble at p 20 (Devlin J).

6 See Smith & Hogan, op cit (n 1 above) p 141.

7 Law Commission No 177, ‘A Criminal Code for England and Wales’ (1989): Volume 1, Report and Draft Criminal Code Bill; Volume 2, Commentary.

8 See Clause 18(b); Examples to Clause 27(1); Commentary 9.18, 9.25.

9 Gillick v W Norfolk & Wisberh Area Health Authority [1986] 1 AC 112.

10 Clause 27(6), and Examples thereto; these cases are presumably to be seen as special instances of necessity.

11 See A-G's Reference (No 1 of 1975) 1975] QB 773 at 780; G Williams, Textbook of Criminal Law (2nd edn, Stevens, 1983) pp 339, 341.

12 See I H Dennis, ‘The Mental Element for Accessories’ (P Smith (ed), Criminal Law: Essays in Honour of J C Smith (Butterworths, 1987) 40) at pp 51–55; G R Sullivan, ‘Intent, Purpose and Complicity’ (1988) Crim LR 641; G Williams, ‘Oblique Intention’ (1987) CLJ 417, p436.

13 See G H Gordon, The Criminal Law of Scotland (2nd edn, W Green, 1978) pp 142–144; and US v Falcone [1940] 109 F(2d) 579.

14 Gillick at p 190 (per Lord Scarman).

15 R v Salford Health Authority, ex p Janaway (1988) Times, 5 January; see also A-G v Able [1984] QB 795.

16 Steane [1947] KB 997; Lynch [1975] AC 653.

17 See, for instance, G Williams, Criminal Law: The General Part (2nd edn, Stevens, 1961) p 41; Smith & Hogan, op cit (n 1 above) p 58.

18 J C Smith [1986] Crim LR 114; see also Smith & Hogan, op cit, p 139, and the comments on Fretwell [1862] 169 ER 1345 in Williams, Criminal Law: The General Part, p 368, and Smith & Hogan, op cit, p 140.

19 As, for instance, a chemist who knowingly supplies an abortifacient can be convicted under s 59 of the Offences against the Person Act 1861 (see Williams, Criminal Law: The General Part, p 369).

20 See Sullivan, op cit (n 12 above); R Buxton, op cit (n 1 above).

21 See G Fletcher, Rethinking Criminal Law (Little, Brown, 1978) ch 8.

22 See Cunliffe v Goodman [1950] 2 KB 237 at 253 (per Lord Asquith).

23 See ss 27, 49(1) of the Penal Code of the Federal Republic of Germany (trans J P Darby, Sweet and Maxwell, 1987); Fletcher, op cit (n 21 above) ch 8.5–6; C M VClarkson & H M Keating, Criminal Law: Text and Materials (Sweet & Maxwell, 1984) pp 442–447.

24 See Dennis, op cit (n 12 above) pp 52–54.

25 See 1989 Draft Criminal Code C1 18(b); Dennis, op cit, pp 52, 54; R A Duff, ‘Intention, Mens Rea and the Law Commission Report’ (1980) Grim LR 147, pp 149–151.

26 See Perkins [1955] III CCC 194 (Nova Scotia Appeal Court).

27 Williams, Criminal Law: The General Part, p 356.

28 HM Advocate v Semple [1937] JC 41; see Gordon, op cit (n 13 above) p 144.

29 Dennis, op cit (n 12 above) p 52.

30 Dennis, op cit, p 54.

31 See the examples discussed in Gordon, op cit (n 13 above) pp 142–143.

32 [1959 1 1 QB 11.

33 Dennis, op cit (n 12 above) p 52; see Sullivan, op cit (n 12 above) pp 643–645.

34 See NCB v Gamble at p 13.

35 NCB v Gamble at p 13.

36 See NCB v Gamble at pp 21–22.

37 See Gordon, op cit (n 13 above) p 143; Smith & Hogan, op cit (n 1 above) p 142.

38 CI 18(b); see text at n 8 above.

39 See R A Duff, op cit (n 25 above) pp 151–153.

40 See the prosecutor's argument at NCB v Gamble, p 17.

41 Gillick at p 190 (per Lord Scarman).

42 See NCB v Gamble at p 20.

43 Williams, Criminal Law: The General Part, p 373.

44 Perhaps along the lines suggested in Williams, op cit, p 380.

45 See Fletcher, op cit (n 21 above) ch 8; on liability for omissions see Smith & Hogan, op cit (n 1 above) pp 48–55.

46 NCB v Gamble at p 20.

47 See, for instance, R Buxton, op cit (n 1 above) pp 252–253, 263–264.

48 See J Casey, ‘Actions and Consequences’ (in Casey (ed), Morality and Moral Reasoning (Methuen, 1971) 155).

49 See Miller [1983] 2 AC 161.

50 See Smith & Hogan, op cit (n 1 above) p 767.

51 See Smith & Hogan, op cit, p 833.

52 See Fletcher, op cit (n 21 above) p 676; Williams, Textbook of Criminal Law, p 342; also Judge Learned Hand in US v Falcone - ‘It is not enough that he does not forgo a normally lawful activity, of the fruits of which he knows that others will make an unlawful use’.

53 R v Salford Health Authority, ex p Janaway..

54 Licensing Act 1964, s 172(3).

55 For instance on those dealing in firearms; and see n 19 above.

56 See text at n 10 above.

57 See Smith & Hogan, op cit (n 1 above) p 142; to see how their objection to the ‘uncertainty’ of such a rule can be met, compare the requirement to report certain types of ‘planned criminal activity’ under s 138 of the West German Penal Code (n 23 above).

58 Compare the German requirement cited in n 57 above.

59 See J Feinberg, Harm to Others (Oxford University Press, 1984) ch 4.