ABSTRACT
This chapter is concerned with the limitations imposed by law not only on courts' use of the various penal measures but also on the way in which these measures are carried out. In theory, the part of the royal prerogative is based on the assumption that the sovereign is the law-giver, and thus the only person who can interfere with the operation of the law. The British penal system no longer includes penalties which consist in the deliberate infliction of bodily harm. The amputation of limbs died out in the Middle Ages. For murder the sentence must be one of imprisonment for life, the effect of which is that the date of the prisoner's release is decided by the Home Secretary. A small percentage of indictable offences by adults were regarded as trivial enough to be dismissed with a police caution.
