29th October 2021
What would be a ‘licence to kill’?
The word ‘licence’ is familiar – but is also important.
At law, a licence is not – say – a mere endorsement or an encouragement.
It is not really just a bare permission (which can be for something you are permitted to do anyway).
A licence is a permission to do a thing that otherwise would be unlawful – but for that licence.
It is, in effect, the get out of jail card – or at least a get out of any liability card, either criminal or civil.
So, for example, a licence will stop a person in another person’s field from being sued for trespass, or a software user from being sued for copyright infringement for using another proprietary software.
Or a licence will stop you from being prosecuted for driving a car on the public highway – or even for watching everyday programmes on an everyday television.
And so on.
Licences are the signifiers of the sheer extent of the prohibitions around us.
They are permissions to do things that are otherwise banned.
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A ‘licence to kill’ would be a permission to kill another person that otherwise would lead to the killer incurring criminal and/or civil liability for that killing.
In essence: to kill without legal consequence.
You may think that a ‘licence to kill’ is the fictional stuff of James Bond and other spy thrillers.
But, in legal fact, they exist in the law of the United Kingdom – and they are multiplying.
They are not formally called ‘licences to kill’, of course – and they are not numbered sequentially (as far as we know) – but they do exist.
Go over to my column this month at Prospect magazine to find out more.
(And please do click on the article, as it means a lot to me and to the magazine.)
Did you know the CIA after they received Presidential sanction to assassinate Fidel Castro discovered they had no assassin on the payroll?
They outsourced the job to the Cosa Nostra, who proved surprisingly squeamish, given their public reputation, when it came to undertaking the contract.
Killing someone in cold blood, especially when in close proximity to them, if not looking them in the face, is not as easy as some might think it to be, especially if you want to live a long and comfortable life thereafter rather than die in the process.
Castro went on to survive numerous assassination attempts that, if considered out of context might make you think he was a dummy target for training exercises rather than the intended victim of state sanctioned murder.
I don’t believe there would be any immunity from prosecution in other national jurisdictions for crimes committed on the high seas. Matteo Salvini is currently on trial in Italy on charges of obstructng migrant boats. If true, it wouldn’t protect perpetrators (or perhaps those providing their dubious licences) being prosecuted when they arrived on the Costa del Sol for their sunshine, fish and chips.
wow “just doing his Job” sounds terrible familiar to the horrible exuse at the nuernberg trial’s “just followed my order’s”
which was not accepted by the court. But at least the Politicans can say we didnt wanted this, it is enshrined in our law, other than the generals and higher ups at nuernberg.
There is a lot of very murky business with state actors having a license to kill in N Ireland. There have been many (unproven) allegations that soldiers were acting under a ‘shoot to kill’ policy; there are many allegations of complicity between members of the security forces and terrorist organisations in assassinations. There are allegations around ‘double agents’ such as Stakeknife who, allegedly, was able to murder, but whose cover was protected by the state.
And now you tell us that such licenses are actually ‘legal’. It’s no wonder that these allegations are now unprovable; a part of our unhappy history that cannot now be illuminated.
Well, one could also add the 1967 Abortion Act in E&W as a licence to kill, and this weeks, although not yet law, Assisted Dying Bill in the House of Lords. Also, the use of the Brexit impasse to impose on Northern Ireland – against the wishes of both communities – the decriminalisation of sections of Offences against the Person Act 1861.
Apart from this being terrifying, on a much lighter note does anyone else remember the Woodfall, Landlord and Tenant looseleaf folder? Its numbering began with 00 and sometime in the 1990s a sheet had been inserted in the index to include, after Licence to Assign, Licence for Alterations etc, “007, Licence to Kill”. It only appeared once., no doubt inserted by a bored employee.
“ Not only must injustice be done, but injustice must be seen to be done, with full legal protection.”
Bravo, sir, bravo.
So everyone is subject to the law, except those who are exempt.
I don’t think it matters whether this is by ‘licence’ or not, in the accepted sense – I doubt it is a written document of any description; someone, or a group (in ‘authority’), decide something can be done contrary to the law, and it just happens.
Reminds me of how Freemasonry operates in the UK judiciary