Maximum certainty

• Tony Honoré, About Law

  "As part of the rule of law, a person should not be punished by the state except for a crime defined by law in advance"
• Key principle

  The law should be as certain as possible:

  • If it is not know what elements constitutes as a crime, then it is not fair that a person could be convicted of a crime
• Criminal offences

  Not typically challenged for uncertainty as most have clearly specified MR and AR
• Public nuisance

  Case: R v Rimmington and Goldstein

  • Goldstein sent salt in the post, which the postman believed was anthrax
  • Law of Public Nuisance lacked clarity, being too vague to provide them with fair notice that it was a crime
  • Found not guilty
• Gross negligence Manslaughter

  Widely challenged for certainty/ clarity:

  • Common law made, no one clear definition
  • Arguments on what constitutes to 'gross'
• GNM: R v Misra and Srivastava

  Brought to appeal, claims that the law breached Article 7 of the ECHR by not having a clear law. No consistency as frequently updating