The Malleability of the Criminal Law

Regina v. Dudley & Stephens suggests the malleability of the criminal law because non-legal considerations may have influenced Dudley's prosecution. Ordinarily, the British may not have prosecuted a homicide performed in survival conditions, especially where the law precluded a valid conviction. The British, however, may have prosecuted Dudley with the extra-legal motivation of declaring the imperialist British as incapable of cannibalism.