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having been exported from the Antipodes to England and Wales, was re-exported and
recycled back to New Zealand as a formal sanction. (Leibrich 1985; Jennings 1990;
Armstrong 1983). A certain element of uniformity with the structure of the community
service order in England and Wales becomes discernable in the jurisdictions which enacted
community service as a sanction, especiallyin the common lawcountries of NewZealand,
Australia, Ireland and Canada. The essential elements of community service, to wit:- a
community-based punishment intended to act as an alternative to custodial penalties, a
consensual acknowledgement by the offender to perform unpaid work in the community
and a uniform maximum of 240 hours unpaid work to be performed by the offender
within one year are reflectedin most of these jurisdictions.
Although in Germany the use of community service is now established as a penalty for
default in the payment of fines, early experiments by some German judges proved to be
quite innovatory as punishments. In particular one German judge in the 1950s forever
remembered by the title the “chocolate judge” obliged offenders to give up their time by
visiting sick and disadvantagedchildren andbygivingsweets (Little 1957:27-31).
The American and Canadian literature universally acknowledges England and Wales as the
initiators of community service orders (Menzies and Vass: 1989:207; Harland 1980: IV,
426; Silberman 1986:XII,131-132) and in particular point out the report of the Sub-
Committee of the Advisory Council on the Penal System (Home Office 1970) as the
primary source of the concept of community service orders. The Sub-Committee which
reported to the Advisory Council on the Penal System in 1970 was chaired by Baroness
Wootton (hereafter referred to as Wootton Committee Report). The British literature on
the emergence of community service orders focuses almost exclusively upon the Wootton
Committee Report as the originator of the concept of community service, although the
Report itself does draw significantly upon the earlier New Zealand model referred to
previously. Ultimately, the emergence of community service as a separate penalty in Irish
sentencing lawcan be traced to the procedures introduced in England and Wales in 1973.
Accordingly an examination of the extensive literature on the sanction as it applies in
England and Wales and in Scotland will provide the most informative overview of the
emergence, rationale and operation of community service orders. Save for a few notable
exceptions between the Irish and English legislation, the legislative format and elements of
the sanction are strikingly similar to the extent that there is little textual difference between
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