R v Chambers [2008] EWCA Crim 2467

A smuggling appeal in which the regulations everyone had been arguing over turned out to have been revoked in 2001. A prosecution lawyer noticed by chance the day before judgment was due. The exchange the essay quotes is the judge asking whether this was "a fortunate accident" and counsel agreeing that it was.

The case matters to the argument as evidence rather than as anecdote: it is a documented instance of the state prosecuting under law it could not itself locate, in a jurisdiction with a functioning legal profession and a published statute book. The essay credits it with prompting the work behind legislation.gov.uk.

Drawn on by For the Love of Law.