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19 June 2015 / Roderick Ramage
Issue: 7657 / Categories: Features
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Law in 101 words

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Snippets from The Reduced Law Dictionary, by Roderick Ramage

Assault & battery

Section 39 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988 states: “Common assault and battery shall be summary offences”. Any information that D did unlawfully assault and batter V contrary to that section is bad for duplicity because it charges two separate offences: DPP v Little (1992). Assault, said the Divisional Court, is to cause an apprehension of violence, while battery is to inflict it. A physical attack from behind cannot be an assault because the victim was caused no apprehensive of it. In contrast the standard indictment under s47 OAPA 1861 is that D assaulted V thereby causing him actual bodily harm.

Ancient mooring rights

Temporary mooring is an incident of the public right of navigation. A riparian owner may grant an easement to moor permanent, but easements cannot exist “in gross”. Royal grants of franchises to moor permanently are not easements and can exist independently of the dominant land. The Thames Conservancy Act 1857 vested the bed and shores of the Thames

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