Conspiracy - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition conspiracy

Definition :

Conspiracy. 'A conspiracy is an agreement by two or more persons to carry out an unlawful common purpose, or to carry out a lawful common purpose by unlawful means. It is a misdemeanour at common law, punishable with fine and imprisonment to any extent; and also with hard labour in the case of ' any conspiracy to cheat or defraud, or to extort money or goods, or falsely to accuse of any crime, or to obstruct, prevent, pervert or defeat the course of public justice ''(14 & 15 Vict. c. 100, s. 29); see Odgers on the Common Law, 2nd Edn. P. 255. 'If in carrying into effect a criminal conspiracy the conspirators inflict loss and damage on a private individual, he will have a private action for the particular damage which he has thus separately suffered'; ibid. pp. 256, 625. There are also, it seems, what may be called civil con-spiracies, i.e., conspiracies which may be the foundation of an action, though not of an indictment; and there are undoubtedly cases in which two or more persons can render themselves liable to civil proceedings by combining to injure the plaintiff, although if one of them did the same act by himself he would escape all liability (ibid. p. 629); but see, as to the limits of this rule, Mogul Steamship Co. v. McGregor, 1892 AC 95; Quinn v. Leathem, 1901 AC 495; Pratt v. British Medical Association, (1919) 1 KB 244; Sorrell v. Smith, (1923)

2 Ch 32. Actions of this kind, however, have generally arisen in connection with trade disputes, and the law as to them now depends principally on the two statutes of 1875 and 1906 (as amended by the Act of 1927) next referred to, which have greatly altered the old law of conspiracy. By the Conspiracy and Protection of Property Act, 1875 (38 & 39 Vict. c. 86), s. 3, as amended by the (English) Trade Disputes Act, 1906, an agreement or combination by two or more persons to do or procure to be done any act in contemplation or furtherance of a trade dispute shall not be indictable as a conspiracy if such act committed by one person would not be punishable as a crime. And by the (English) Trade Disputes Act, 1906

(s. 1), an act done in pursuance of an agreement or combination by two or more persons shall, if done in contemplation or furtherance of a trade dispute, not be actionable unless the act, if done without any such agreement or combination, would be actionable. But the (English) Trade Disputes and Trade Unions Act, 1927 (17 & 18 Geo. 5, c. 22), s. 1, declares what is an illegal strike or lockout, and that the 1906 Act shall not apply in the case of an illegal strike.

See Chitty's Statute, tit. Master and Servant,' and TRADE DISPUTE.