Contents

[close]

JCL 68 (2004) 507

The ICCPR as a 'living instrument': the death penalty as cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment
Amrita Mukherjee 

This article examines the recent views of the UN Human Rights Committee on the issues related to the death penalty. Obligations under Articles 6 (the right to life) and 7 (the right not to be subjected to torture or other, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment) are correlated. Despite widely divergent opinions within the Committee on the issue, this human rights body is moving towards strengthening the obligations of abolitionist states and, in so doing, restricting the availability of the sanction for retentionist states. This is consistent with the object and purposes approach and the nature of the ICCPR as a living instrument.

[close]

[close]

JCL 68 (2004) 520

Dishonest appropriation after Gomez and Hinks
Simon Parsons 

This article examines the meaning of dishonest appropriation in the offence of theft after the House of Lords' decisions in Gomez and Hinks. It maintains that whilst Gomez broke the distinction in the Theft Act 1968 between the simple thief and the deceitful rogue, it did at least maintain the underlying rationale for theft which is the protection of property rights. In contrast Hinks does not comply with this rationale as it allows for the possibility of an appropriation when there was valid gift of property so that the actus reus of theft no longer requires that there be the composite whole of a 'dishonest appropriation'. Thus the emphasis in the offence of theft is now on dishonesty and this may be in violation of Articles 5(1) and 7(1) of the European Convention on Human Rights.

[close]

[close]

JCL 68 (2004) 533

The rape of a label: why it would be wrong to follow Canada in having a single offence of unlawful sexual assault
Damian Warburton 

With the enactment of the Sexual Offences Act 2003, the UK has just had its biggest shake-up of the existing law on sexual offences. Rape has been widened to include oral sex, a new offence of assault by penetration has been created, and what was indecent assault has been renamed sexual assault. Twenty-one years ago the Canadians did away altogether with the legal term of rape and created an all-encompassing offence of sexual assault.

While the UK is experiencing an all-time low in securing convictions for rape, this article asks what can be done to reverse this. Could doing away with the label of rape make it easier to obtain a conviction in rape trials? Perhaps reversing the burden of proof, or tightening up the requirements for obtaining consent, or tackling the biggest new phenomenon in sexual offences, date rape, is the way forward.

What we call something may not seem all that important, but this article aims to show that the social stigma attached to the word rape is as important as the sentence itself.

[close]

[close]

Links to other issues

Volume 65 (2001) :   1   2   3   4   5   6

Volume 66 (2002) :   1   2   3   4   5   6

Volume 67 (2003) :   1   2   3   4   5   6

Volume 68 (2004) :   1   2   3   4   5   6

Volume 69 (2005) :   1   2   3   4   5   6

Volume 70 (2006) :   1   2   3   4   5   6

Volume 71 (2007) :   1   2   3   4   5   6

Volume 72 (2008) :   1   2   3   4   5   6

Volume 73 (2009) :   1   2   3   4   6

Volume 74 (2010) :   1   2   3   4

[close]