STATUTE LAW REVISION: SIXTEENTH ... - Law Commission

attempting to convey slaves from one country to another by whatever means, or
being accessory thereto, “shall be a criminal offence” in the laws of state parties,
on conviction “liable to very severe penalties”. Secondly, state parties are
required “to punish” persons who use their ships and aircraft for conveying
slaves. Thirdly, under the Convention the act of enslaving another or inducing
another to give himself or a dependant into slavery, or of attempting these acts,
or being accessory thereto, or being a party to a conspiracy to accomplish any
such acts, “shall be a criminal offence” under the laws of state parties, on
conviction liable to punishment. Under the Law of the Sea Convention every
state must take effective measures to prevent and “punish” the transport of
slaves in ships authorised to fly its flag, and to prevent the unlawful use of its flag
for that purpose. Any slave taking refuge on board any ship, whatever its flag, is
to be free. Further provisions authorise warships of state parties to board any
foreign ship on the high seas where there is reasonable ground for suspecting
that it is engaged in the slave trade.
150 Slave Trade Act 1824
8.1 Of the surviving sections of the Slave Trade Act 1824, 11 section 2 declares a
comprehensive list of activities relating to slavery and the slave trade to be
unlawful; sections 3 to 8 impose various types of monetary penalties and
forfeitures on every person “offending” against most of the activities referred to in
section 2; section 9 declares certain activities defined by section 2, if carried out
in specified locations, to be piracy; sections 10 and 11 impose criminal penalties
on those guilty of activities declared by section 2 to be unlawful; and various
miscellaneous provisions have functions ancillary to the foregoing.
8.2 Sections 2, 10 and 11, which are interconnected in subject-matter, remain part of
the armoury of the criminal law for the purpose of imposing penalties upon those
who undertake activities involving or connected with the slave trade and, together
with such offences at common law as kidnapping and false imprisonment (or, in
Scotland, abduction or plagium), 12 are therefore essential as a means for the
fulfilment of the United Kingdom’s international obligations referred to in
paragraph 8.6. Thus it is not proposed here that any part of these sections
should be repealed other than:
(a) in section 10, repeal of the obsolete reference declaring that an
offence under the section is a felony subject to transportation for
fourteen years. The distinction between felony and
misdemeanour was abolished in 1967. 13 Transportation was
11 The greater part of this lengthy Act was repealed by the Slave Trade Act 1873, which
loosely derives certain of its provisions from the repealed sections of the 1824 Act. The
1824 Act was not consolidated in 1873 because its idiosyncratic structure and the detailed
character of ss 2-11 would have been difficult to assimilate into the consolidating Act.
12 Where age is relevant, the modern statutory offence of child abduction under the Child
Abduction Act 1984 may also be committed in the course of slave trading activities.
13 Criminal Law Act 1967, s 1 (England and Wales), Criminal Law Act (Northern Ireland)
1967, s 1 (Northern Ireland). This Northern Ireland Act also amended s.10 of the 1824 Act
to omit reference to transportation and substitute imprisonment (s.13 and Sch 1); the
changes proposed here are therefore limited to Great Britain. The distinction between
felony and misdemeanour was never recognised in Scotland.
94