New research presented to the Law and History Network

On 30 March 2023 Stephanie Dropuljic delivered an online talk to the Law and History Network analysing the doctrine of 'art and part' liability in Scots law and its impact on the law in practice.

Art and part liability is a form of extended liability, whereby the principal actor and secondary accused are linked by their actions and collective participation. In 1592, the Scottish Parliament enacted a piece of legislation titled ‘concerning the relevancy of libels in causes criminal’. This Act sought to ensure that criminal libels would accuse those thereof as ‘art and part of the crime’. This amendment was to ensure that ‘exceptions and objections’ which were commonly raised against libels would be diminished as many ‘parties’ were ‘frustrated [by] justice’. Through implementation, this would have impacted on the defences ability to establish that neither party was not art and part of the crime. Her paper situated the Parliamentary Act of 1592 within the prosecution of homicide and the significance this had on criminal litigation. In doing so, she showed impact this legislation had on the law in practice.