Pre-Copy Edited Version of Chapter. Please Cite from the Final Version Contained In
Pre-Copy Edited version of chapter. Please cite from the final version contained in Handler, Mares and Williams, Landmark Cases in Criminal Law (2017, Hart) The Carrier’s Case (1473) Ian Williams The Carrier’s Case1 remains an authority in certain parts of the common law world, the oldest authority cited in a recent work on Anglo-American theft law.2 James Fitzjames Stephen described the case as ‘the most curious case relating to theft’ in medieval law.3 It remains, in the words of one writer, an ‘enigma’, indeed the first enigma, in the common law of larceny.4 The medieval law of larceny was a criminal law counterpart to trespass to goods. Like its private law counterpart, it required a trespassory taking of possession of a chattel. For the taking to be trespassory, it had to be performed with force and My thanks to John Baker, Guido Rossi and David Seipp for advice and assistance in the research for this paper. The year is taken as beginning in January. 1 The Carrier’s Case; Anon v Sheriff of London (1473) YB Pasch 13 Edw IV, fo 9, pl 5; SS vol 64, 30-34. Citations will be taken from the Selden Society report, based on British Library Additional MS 37493, a manuscript associated with the early-sixteenth century lawyer Robert Chaloner. This report contains more detail than the vulgate Yearbook report. 2 S Green, Thirteen Ways to Steal a Bicycle: theft law in the information age (Cambridge MA, Harvard University Press, 2012) 11. New South Wales, for example, retains the common law of larceny, while several states in the USA have not adopted the Model Penal Code and retain a law of larceny which is at least partly common law.
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