OF IMPLICATION, INSINUATION AND INCITEMENT R v Jones [2010] 3 All ER 1186 (CA)

Can the crime of incitement be committed by insinuation? Can a conversation about growing tomatoes by implication actually be aconversation about the crime of producing cannabis? These are the questions which arise from the recent English case of R v Jones ([2010] 3 All ER 1186 (CA)). Although the English law relating to the way in which encouraging crime is criminalised has recently changed, the similarities between the previous (common-law) position in England (which was the law to be applied in Jones) and the current South African law make for a useful comparison between these systems, and it is to this that we now turn.