THE ORIGINS OF LARCENY BY A TRICK AND CONSTRUCTIVE POSSESSION

This article explores the links between early and recent developments in the law of theft. It was in the second half of the eighteenth centu ry that larceny began a process of expansion that continues to this da y, although the crime is now known as theft. An attempt is made to ide ntify the beginnings of this process in cases and juristic works that predate Pear, which is usually assumed to mark the start of judicial a ctivism in the field of larceny, and that case is thus presented in a new light. The article then demonstrates the continued influence of th ese sources, in the years immediately following Pear. Finally current assumptions, as illustrated by dicta from Preddy, are considered in th e light of a historical perspective in general, and of these formative influences on the nineteenth century law of larceny in particular.