Attorney-General for Ontario v Hamilton Street Ry Co: PC 1903

The phrase ‘Criminal law’ means ‘the criminal law in its widest sense’. The Judicial Committee refused to give its opinion on a number of questions relating to the operation of certain Canadian legislation which purported to prevent ‘the Profanation of the Lord’s Day’ by proscribing the doing of work on that day.
The Lord Chancellor said of a court being requested to answer an hypotheticala question: With regard to the remaining questions, which it has been suggested should be reserved for further argument, their Lordships are of opinion that it would be inexpedient and contrary to the established practice of this Board to attempt to give any judicial opinion upon those questions. They are questions proper to be considered in concrete cases only; and opinions expressed upon the operation of the sections referred to, and the extent to which they are applicable, would be worthless for many reasons. They would be worthless as being speculative opinions on hypothetical questions. It would be contrary to principle, inconvenient, and inexpedient that opinions should be given upon such questions at all. When they arise, they must arise in concrete cases, involving private rights; and it would be extremely unwise for any judicial tribunal to attempt beforehand to exhaust all possible cases and facts which might occur to qualify, cut down, and override the operation of particular words when the concrete case is not before it.

Citations:

[1903] AC 524

Cited by:

CitedProprietary Articles Trade Association v Attorney-General for Canada PC 1931
The Board was asked how to identify whether an allegation amounted to a criminal one. Lord Atkin said: ‘It appears to their Lordships to be of little value to seek to confine crimes to a category of acts which by their very nature belong to the . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Crime, Commonwealth

Updated: 13 May 2022; Ref: scu.224364