ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the law of attempt is equally complex and driven by incoherent policy. The issue of duplication is not unique to the boundary between inchoate offences and secondary participation, but this does not mean that it is desirable. If this exemption to liability for statutory conspiracy is based upon the notion that spouses and civil partners 'are regarded for certain purposes as in law one person', then one can argue that it should also extend to complicity and the 2007 Act inchoate offences. The Law Commission returned once again to the issue of conspiracy in 2006 and 2007, when they considered the issues of inchoate liability for encouraging and assisting offences and secondary liability for participating in crime. The lack of clarity over the common law doctrine on joint enterprise is unacceptable for such an important aspect of the criminal law.
