Part I.
(6) In this Part of this Act references to felony shall not be taken as including treason; but the procedure on trials for treason or misprision of treason shall be the same as the procedure as altered by this Act on trials for murder.
(7) Any provision of this Part of this Act relating to proceedings on indictment shall, so far as applicable, apply also to proceedings on an inquisition.
Part II
Obsolete Crimes
Abolition of certain offences, and consequential repeals. 13.—(1) The following offences are hereby abolished, that is to say—
- (a) any distinct offence under the common law in England and Wales of maintenance (including champerty, but not embracery), challenging to fight, eavesdropping or being a common barrator, a common scold or a common night walker; and
- (b) any offence under an enactment mentioned in Part I of Schedule 4 to this Act, to the extent to which the offence depends on any section or part of a section included in the third column of that Schedule.
(2) Accordingly the enactments mentioned in Parts I and II of Schedule 4 to this Act are hereby repealed to the extent specified in the third column of the Schedule, but subject to the provisions of Part III of the Schedule.
(3) This section shall extend to Northern Ireland only in so far as it relates—
- (a) to offences under any Act of the Parliament of Ireland; or
- (b) to offences under any other enactment of which the repeal is in Schedule 4 to this Act expressed to extend to Northern Ireland;
and in so far as it repeals any such Act or enactment.
Part III
Supplementary
Civil rights in respect of maintenance and champerty. 14.—(1) No person shall, under the law of England and Wales, be liable in tort for any conduct on account of its being maintenance or champerty as known to the common law, except in the case of a cause of action accruing before this section has effect.
(2) The abolition of criminal and civil liability under the law of England and Wales for maintenance and champerty shall not affect any rule of that law as to the cases in which a contract is to be treated as contrary to public policy or otherwise illegal.
Short title. 15. This Act may be cited as the Criminal Law Act 1967.
