Hamesucken

Scottish Law: Hamesucken in the Past

The crime of hamesucken consists in “the felonious seeking and invasion of a person in his dwelling house.” 1 Hume, 312; Burnett, 86; Alison’s Princ. of the Cr. Law of Scotl. 199.

Developments

The mere breaking into a house, without personal violence, does not constitute the offence, nor does the violence without an entry with intent to, commit an assault. It is the combination of both which completes the crime. 1. It is necessary that the invasion of the house should have proceeded from forethought malice; but it is sufficient, if, from any illegal motive, the violence has been meditated, although it may not have proceeded from the wish of wreaking personal revenge, properly so called. 2. The place where the assault was committed must have been the proper dwelling house of the party injured and not a place of business, visit or occasional residence. 3. the offence maybe committed equally in the day as in the night and not only by effraction of the building by actual force but by an entry geted by fraud, with the intention of inflicting personal violence, followed by its perpetration. 4. But unless the injury (see more about this popular legal topic in the U.K. encyclopedia) to the person be of a grievous and material, character, it is not hamesucken, though the other requisites to the crime have occurred. When this is the case, it is immaterial whether the violence be done lucri causâ or from personal spite. 5. The punishment of hamesucken in aggravated cases of injury (see more about this popular legal topic in the U.K. encyclopedia), is death in cases of inferior atrocity, an arbitrary punishment. Alison’s Pr. of Cr. Law of Scotl. ch. 6; Ersk. Pr. L. Scotl. 4, 9, 23. This term wag formerly used in England (see more about this legal system) instead of the now modern term burglary. 4 Bl. Com. 223. [1][rtbs name=”scottish-law”]

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Notes and References

1. Partialy, this information about hamesucken is based on the Bouvier´s Law Dictionary, 1848 edition. There is a list of terms of the Bouvier´s Law Dictionary, including hamesucken.

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