EU Crypto Free Trade Area

[Brian Gladman]

-----Original Message-----
From: Nicholas Bohm <nbohm@ernest.net>
To: ukcrypto@maillist.ox.ac.uk <ukcrypto@maillist.ox.ac.uk>
Date: 21 March 1998 12:30
Subject: Re: EU Crypto Free Trade Area

>At 09:25 21/03/1998 -0000, Brian Gladman <gladman@seven77.demon.co.uk>
wrote:
>
>[snip]
>
>>Not being a lawyer, I don't know the significance in the courts of a
>>situation where the authorities are seen, over a long period, not to
enforce
>>a law.  I would certainly be interested to hear from any lawyers on the
list
>>on what might happen in court if someone is now singled out for
prosecution
>>when so many other openly documented breaches of the regulations have been
>>ignored.  I would have at least hoped that the courts would ask themselves
>>what made the case before them so special.
>
>The existence of unprosecuted crimes does not entitle prosecuted criminals
>to an acquittal.  (Think about speeding offences.)  This remains the case
>where the prosecutions are selective on objectionable grounds (for example,
>street sellers of conventional newspapers unmolested, street sellers of
>politically controversial newspapers moved on or prosecuted for
obstructions).
>
>If you are VERY lucky with your judge, you might be able to bring in issues
>of this kind in support of a plea in mitigation of sentence.  In an
>outrageous case, you might get a sentence consisting of an absolute
>discharge (i.e. no penalty at all), by way of two fingers to the
prosecutor.

Thanks Nicholas, I was hoping that 'the law is not an ass' but it seems that
it might be!

The speeding offence analogy does not quite fit my model since there are
many prosecutions for speeding and no evidence that the authorities turn a
blind eye to it.  In the case of the crypto export laws there is long term
evidence of no action by the authorities in the face of a number of well
documented exports.  So my interest is in a situation where:

* a law has been on the books for many years

* it has never ever been used to mount a prosecution

* despite the fact that it has been visibly broken many times during this
long period

I suspect that your answer is still valid but it would be a first use of the
law in question and it might be seen as a precedent.  I hence wondered
whether, in such a situation, some wider issues might be allowed to carry
weight.

    Brian