Smith, Hogan and Ormerod's Criminal Law

Smith, Hogan and Ormerod's Criminal Law, formerly published as Smith and Hogan's Criminal Law, and referred to as Smith and Hogan, is the leading doctrinal textbook on criminal law in England and Wales^[1][2].

Cover of the 17th edition of Smith, Hogan and Ormerod's Criminal Law (2024)

It is widely used in university law schools, greatly relied upon throughout the legal profession and in the courts^[3], and it is of such authoritative status that it is regularly cited in the High Court of Justice, Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) and the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom^[4].

The text was originally co-written by Professor Sir John C. Smith and Professor Brian Hogan (first to seventh editions, 1965-1992). Following the untimely death of Brian Hogan in 1996, Sir John completed the eighth, ninth and tenth editions (1996, 1999, 2002) alone. After the publication of the tenth edition, Sir John placed future editions of the work in the hands of Professor David Ormerod, whom he had nurtured as a junior colleague at Nottingham in the 1990s.^[5][6] Professor Ormerod completed the eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth editions (2011, 2015, 2018) alone and was then joined by Karl Laird for the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth editions (2015, 2018 and 2021). Matthew Gibson joined them for the seventeenth edition (2024).

Additional chapters are published as online only additional resources, and there are companion Cases and Materials and Essentials of Criminal Law series.

Editions

Cover	Edition	Published	Authors	Publisher	ISBN
	First edition	September 1965	J.C.Smith & B.Hogan	Butterworths	N/A (pre-ISBN era)
	Second edition	June 1969	J.C.Smith & B.Hogan	Butterworths	9780406658029, 0406658021
	Third edition	July 1973	J.C.Smith & B.Hogan	Butterworths	9780406658043
	Fourth edition	1978	J.C.Smith & B.Hogan	Butterworths	9780406658050
	Fifth edition	1983	J.C.Smith & B.Hogan	Butterworths	9780406658258
	Sixth edition	1988	J.C.Smith & B.Hogan	Butterworths	0406658137
	Seventh edition	1992	J.C.Smith & B.Hogan	Butterworths	9780406957412
	Eighth edition	1996	J.C.Smith	Butterworths	9780406081872
	Ninth edition	1999	J.C.Smith	Butterworths	9780406983831
	Tenth edition	2002	J.C.Smith	LexisNexis Butterworths	9780406948014
	Eleventh edition	2005	D.Ormerod	OUP	0406977305
	Twelfth edition	2008	D.Ormerod	OUP	9780199214683
	Thirteenth edition	2011	D.Ormerod	OUP	9780199586493
	Fourteenth edition	June 2015	D.Ormerod & K.Laird	OUP	9780198702313
	Fifteenth edition	July 2018	D.Ormerod & K.Laird	OUP	9780198807094
	Sixteenth edition	July 2021	D.Ormerod & K.Laird	OUP	9780198849704
	Seventeenth edition	September 2024	D.Ormerod, K.Laird & M.Gibson	OUP	9780198890942

Recent Citation in Appellate Courts

Supreme Court of the United Kingdom

• Pwr v DPP [2022] UKSC 2

• R v Jogee [2016] UKSC 8

Court of Appeal (Criminal and Civil Divisions)

• R v Hobday [2025] EWCA Crim 46

• R v Ivanova [2024] EWCA Crim 808

• R v Drake [2023] EWCA Crim 1454

• R v Wu [2023] EWCA Crim 338

• R v Keal [2023] EWCA Crim 1454

• R v Smith [2020] EWCA Crim 38

• R v Melin [2019] EWCA Crim 557

• R v Wallace [2018] EWCA Crim 690

• R v Rejmanski [2017] EWCA Crim 2061

• Proctor v Chief Constable of Cleveland [2017] EWCA Civ 1531

• R v Ray [2017] EWCA Crim 1391

• R v Riddell [2017] EWCA Crim 413

• R v Lunn [2017] EWCA Crim 34

• R v Chapman [2015] EWCA Crim 539

• R v Gurpinar [2015] EWCA Crim 178

High Court

• Perry v Government of USA [2021] EWHC 1956 (Admin)

• Oraki v CPS [2018] EWHC 115 (Admin)

• Loake v CPS [2017] EWHC 2855 (Admin)

• Ivey v Genting Casinos UK Ltd (t/a Crockfords Club) [2014] EWHC 3394 (QB)

See also

List of main criminal law texts in England and Wales