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CHAPTER XXX.: PLAN OF PROCEDURE CODE. - Jeremy Bentham, The Works of Jeremy Bentham, vol. 3 [1843]

Edition used:

The Works of Jeremy Bentham, published under the Superintendence of his Executor, John Bowring (Edinburgh: William Tait, 1838-1843). 11 vols. Vol. 3.

Part of: The Works of Jeremy Bentham, 11 vols.

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CHAPTER XXX.

PLAN OF PROCEDURE CODE.

In arranging matters of procedure, it is necessary to regard four principles:—1. The order of the offences which it is intended to combat, or of rights not enjoyed, which it is intended to cause to be enjoyed. 2. The order of the ends which can be proposed in combating the ill effects of each offence. 3. The chronological order of the steps which may be taken on the one side or on the other, in the pursuit of these ends. 4. The power to be exercised provisionally for securing the justiciability of the accused.

We commence, then, by the system of procedure which is suitable to every offence.

To arrest, to indemnify, to prevent;—these three objects of the legislator give rise to three distinct branches:—procedure ad compescendum,ad compensandum, ad præveniendum. These three branches are not required with regard to every offence, because they may all be secured by seeking them together.

With respect to precautions for submitting the party to justice, there are two things to be done—to secure the person of the accused, or his goods—or to admit him to give bail. The necessity of these precautions is determined by the intensity of the punishment. The punishment attached to the offence of which an individual is accused, may be such, that he would choose rather to indemnify his sureties, or to leave them to suffer in his stead, than to expose himself to it. In this case, we can possess no other security than that of his person. But if it can be presumed, either from his property or from other motives determining his residence, that he would submit to the judgment which may be pronounced against him, rather than escape it by flight, imprisonment would be a useless rigour. It is not so much the nature of the offence, as the responsibility of the accused, which ought to determine these precautions. A poor man, and especially a stranger, ought to be arrested, when there would be no necessity for arresting a rich man or a housekeeper. Not that the stranger ought to be more ill treated than the resident inhabitant, or the poor than the rich; but because the circumstances of the one offer a guarantee which the circumstances of the other do not yield. Necessity alone can authorize the slightest degree of constraint.

The distinction between criminal procedure, slightly criminal, and civil, may be preserved, or they may be exchanged for other terms:—procedure of rigour—procedure of less rigour—procedure without rigour.

The code of procedure will be much shortened, by distributing it into general and particular titles.

All offences with regard to which the same procedure may be pursued, ought to be placed together, and designated by a common title.

Penal suits have direct reference to offences. Suits of demand, commonly called civil suits, have direct reference to rights, and indirect reference to offences.

Care should also be taken to prepare formulas for all cases which are susceptible of them; that is to say, for everything which in the course of the trial may be done by a general rule.

[]The famous English law of habeas corpus is an example of procedure ad compescendum, with regard to offences directed against the person. What renders it famous is, that the ministers, who act by order of the king, are subject to it as well as others. It allows of no arbitrary imprisonment. The action ad exhibendum of the code Frédéric produces a similar effect with regard to things.