ENGLISH LAW DRASTIC.

Shannon News, 19 February 1924, Page 4

ENGLISH LAW DRASTIC.

DETERRENT TO MURDER.

The comparative freedom of Great Britain from crimes of voilence is ascribed by Mr. Wade H. ElliA of the American Bar Association, chiefly to the fact that English law has been made a real terror to tho evildoer. Mr. Ellis, in company with Mr. C. S. Whitson, former Governor., of New York, and Judge Marcus Kavanagh, of the Superior Court of Chicago, spent two months in England and France, studing the judical procedure, of those countries. The. comparisons.he makes, in an article in the ‘‘Washington Post,” between the administration of criminal law in England, • France, and America, are distinctly in favour, of European methods. The homogeneity pf the populations of Englandand France is one reason which Mr. Ellis gives for the absence of violent crime, “but more important than else,” he adds, is the fact that m England and France in criminal cases there is celerity of action, certainty of conviction, -nd adequacy of punishment.” The knowledge that a man who commits a murder is liable to be hanged within thirty days is a powerful deterrent. The backbone of the legal system in England and France is the judge, Mr. Ellis observes, who has tremendous powen to shorten trials, and hasten them to a conclusion. A. place on the bench is a badge of honour, and the courts are well sup-, nicrit from the picked men of the, Bar. There are ten to twenty times as many, murders in New York in a single year as in all England, Scotland, , and Wales, and ten times as many, murders every year in Chicago as in all France. Other crimes maintain the same-pro-, portion. What is the reason? Mr Ellis bplievcs that in America, while there is: nothing wrong with the basic judical system, there are not enough judges to handle criminal cases,- and; the judges lack sufficient power to, control trials. The delay in the State courts in the trial of major offences tends to destroy confidence in' the law, and there should be a uniform criminal code for all States. There is no danger o,f going too far in the process of making the law a terror ** wrongdoers; the trouble that Africa has gone too far in the other direction. “We should stop coiddling criminals, and think more of society,” declares Mr. Ellis, “and. 'ineffective administration not only tends to protect but to create crim„ inals.” 1