England and Wales
Doing an act tending and intended to pervert the course of public justice is an offence under the common law of England and Wales.
This offence, and the subject matter of the related forms of criminal conspiracy, has been referred to as:
- Perverting the course of justice
- Interfering with the administration of justice
- Obstructing the administration of justice
- Obstructing the course of justice
- Defeating the due course of justice
- Defeating the ends of justice
- Effecting a public mischief
This proliferation of alternative names is "somewhat confusing".
This offence is also sometimes referred to as "attempting to pervert the course of justice". This is potentially misleading. An attempt to pervert the course of justice is a substantive common law offence and not an inchoate offence. It is not a form of the offence of attempt and it would be erroneous to charge it as being contrary to section 1(1) of the Criminal Attempts Act 1981.
Read more about this topic: Perverting The Course Of Justice
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