At the 2012 Conservative Party conference, new Justice Secretary Chris Grayling announced plans to amend the criminal law to ensure that even householders who react in a way that may seem disproportionate in the cold light of day will be protected from prosecution. This reopened a long-running discussion about the balance of legal rights between the home owner and those trespassing onto the property for criminal purposes. The law received the most scrutiny in the case of Tony Martin, the Norfolk farmer who killed one burglar and wounded another who entered his home in 1999, and was subsequently convicted of murder (reduced to manslaughter on appeal).

Professor John Spencer discusses the new proposal, and considers it in the light of the current law and previous suggestions.

Professor Spencer is Professor of Law, Co-Director of the Centre for European Legal Studies, and Honorary President of the European Criminal Law Association. He has written extensively on criminal justice matters and has been involved in a number of law reform projects.

For more information about Professor Spencer, please refer to his profile at http://www.law.cam.ac.uk/people/academic/jr-spencer/79

Law in Focus is a collection of short videos featuring academics from the University of Cambridge Faculty of Law, addressing legal issues in current affairs and the news. These issues are examples of the many which challenge researchers and students studying undergraduate and postgraduate law at the Faculty.

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