The jurisdiction of England and Wales does not have a Criminal Code though such an instrument has been often recommended and attempted.
[2] Attorney-General Sir John Holker said: Surely, it is a desirable thing that anybody who may want to know the law on a particular subject should be able to turn to a chapter of the Code, and there find the law he is in search of explained in a few intelligible and well-constructed sentences; nor would he have to enter upon a long examination of Russell on Crimes, or Archbold, and other text-books, because he would have a succinct and clear statement before him.
[2] Sir John Smith was, in general an opponent of legal codes but said: The criminal law is entirely different.
State almost any general principle and you find one or more leading cases which contradict it.
It is littered with distinctions which have no basis in reason but are mere historical accidents.