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Criminal Code Act 1899

LAWS OF QUEENSLAND

CRIMINAL CODE ACT 1899
(63 Vic.No.9)

An Act to Establish a Code of Criminal Law.

[ASSENTED TO 28TH NOVEMBER, 1899.]

Preamble.

WHEREAS it is desirable to Declare, Consolidate, and Amend the Criminal Law: Be it enacted and declared by the Queen's Most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council and Legislative Assembly of Queensland in Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:-

Short title.

1. This Act may be cited as “The Criminal Code Act, 1899.”

Establishment of Code.
[Schedule I.]

2. On and from the first day of January, one thousand nine hundred and one, the provisions contained in the Code of Criminal Law set forth in the First Schedule to this Act, and hereinafter called “the Code," shall be the law of Queensland with respect to the several matters therein dealt with.

The said Code may be cited as "The Criminal Code."

Repeal.

3. On and from the coming into operation of the Code -

[Schedule II.]

(1) The several Statutes of the Realm mentioned in the Second Schedule to this Act shall be repealed so far as they are in force in Queensland to the extent in the said Schedule indicated;

[Schedule III.]

(2) The several Statutes of New South Wales and Queensland mentioned in the Third Schedule to this Act shall be repealed to the extent in the said Schedule indicated;

[Schedule IV.]

(3) The several Statutes of New South Wales and Queensland mentioned in the Fourth Schedule to this Act shall be amended in the manner in the said Schedule indicated, and shall be read and construed as being so amended accordingly.

Provided as follows:-

Saving.

(1) The repeal of any Statute or part of a Statute set forth in the said Schedules shall not affect the construction of any other Statute, or of any other part of the same Statute, whether as regards the past or the future:

(2) When any enactment not mentioned in the said Schedules has been repealed, confirmed, revived, or perpetuated, by any enactment hereby repealed, such repeal, confirmation, revivor, or perpetuation, shall not be affected by the repeal effected by this Act:

(3) This Act shall not affect the validity, invalidity, effect, or consequences, of anything already done or suffered, or any existing status or capacity, or any right, title, obligation, or liability, civil or criminal, already acquired, accrued, or incurred, or any remedy or proceeding in respect thereof, or any release or discharge of or from any debt, penalty, obligation, liability, claim, or demand, or any indemnity, or the proof of any past act or thing; and any action, prosecution, or other proceeding, begun before the coming into operation of the Code, may, subject to the provisions of the Code, be continued as if this Act had not been passed; and any action, prosecution, or other proceeding, in respect of anything done or omitted to be done before the coming into operation of the Code, may, subject to the provisions of the Code, be brought, taken, and prosecuted, in the same manner as if this Act bad not been passed:

(4) This Act shall not, except as expressly therein declared, affect any principle or rule of law or equity, or established jurisdiction, or form or course of pleading, practice, or procedure, not withstanding that the same respectively may have been in any manner affirmed, recognised or derived, by, in, or from, any enactment hereby repealed:

(5) This Act shall not revive or restore any jurisdiction, duty, liability, right, title, privilege, restriction, exemption, usage, practice, procedure, form of punishment, or other matter or thing, not now existing or in force.

Construction of Statutes, Statutory Rules, and other instruments.

4. From and after the coming into operation of the Code, the following rules shall, unless the context otherwise indicates, apply with respect to the construction of Statutes, Statutory Rules, By-laws, and other instruments, that is to say, -

(1) When in any Statute, Statutory Rule, By-law, or other instrument, public or private, the term “felony” is used, or reference is made to an offence by the name of felony, it shall be taken that reference is intended to an offence which is a crime under the provisions of the Code:

(2) When in any Statute, Statutory Rule, By-law, or other instrument, public or private, the term “murder” is used, it shall be taken that reference is intended to the crimes of wilful murder and murder and each of them:

(3) When in any Statute, Statutory Rule, By-law, or other instrument, public or private, the term "larceny" is used, it shall be taken that reference is intended to the crime of stealing:

(4) When in any Statute, Statutory Rule, By-law, or other instrument, public or private, reference is made to any offence by any specific name, it shall be intended that reference is intended to the offence which, under the provisions of the Code, is constituted by the act or omission that would heretofore have constituted the offence referred to:

(5) When in any Statute, Statutory Rule, By-law, or other instrument, public or private, reference is made to any of the statutory provisions hereby repealed, it shall be taken that refererence is intended to the corresponding provisions or substituted provisions of the Code.

Provisions of Code exclusive with certain exceptions.

5. From and after the coming into operation of the Code, no person shall be liable to be tried or punished in Queensland as for an indictable offence except under the express provisions of the Code or some other Statute Law of Queensland, or under the express provisions of some Statute of the United Kingdom which is expressly applied to Queensland, or which is in force in all parts of Her Majesty's Dominions not expressly excepted from its operation, or which authorises the trial and punishment in Queensland of offenders who have at places not in Queensland committed offences against the laws of the United Kingdom.

Civil remedies.

6. When by the Code any act is declared to be lawful, no action can be brought in respect thereof.

Saving.

Except as aforesaid, the provisions of this Act shall not affect any right of action which any person would have had against another if this Act had not been passed; nor shall the omission from the Code of any penal provision in respect of any act or omission which before the time of the coming into operation of the Code constituted an actionable wrong affect any right of action in respect thereof.

Offender may be prosecuted under Code or other Statute.

7. When an offender is punishable under the provisions of the Code, and also under the provisions of some other Statute, he may be prosecuted and convicted under the provisions either of the Code or of such other Statute; so that he is not twice punished for the same offence.

Contempt of Court.

8. Nothing in this Act or in the Code shall affect the authority of Courts of Record to punish a person summarily for the offence commonly known as “Contempt of Court”; but so that a person cannot be so punished and also punished under the provisions of the Code for the same act or omission.

Printing of amendments.

9. Whenever any amendment is made in the Code, all copies thereof printed by the Government Printer after the amendment shall be so printed as to set forth the actual provisions of the Code after omitting all repealed provisions or words, and embodying all newly enacted or substituted provisions or words.

General Rules.

10. At any time after the passing of this Act the Judges of the Supreme Court may make General Rules, to take effect on the coming into operation of the Code, with respect to the several matters specified in the Code as matters with respect to which they may make General Rules.

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