## Facts

- Lady Eldon traveled on the Continent and purchased lace she believed was valuable French lace.
- She concealed the lace in a coach pocket, intending to bring it into England without paying customs duty.
- A customs officer discovered the concealed package at Dover.
- The lace was actually an English-manufactured article of little value and not subject to customs duty.
- Lady Eldon was treated as charged with criminal attempt, typically framed as attempted smuggling or attempted evasion of customs duties.

## Issues

1. Whether a defendant can be guilty of criminal attempt when she intends to commit a duty-evasion offense and takes concrete steps toward it, but completion would not be a crime because the goods are not in fact dutiable.
2. Whether “impossibility” arising from the actor’s mistake about a circumstance of the offense (the lace’s dutiable status) defeats attempt liability.

## Decision

- Because this is a teaching hypothetical, it has no authoritative court judgment; it is used to illustrate competing outcomes.
- Under a belief-based (subjectivist) account associated with Wharton, Lady Eldon would be found guilty of attempt because she intended to smuggle dutiable lace and acted to carry out that plan.
- Under a harm-based (objectivist/impossibility) account associated with scholars arguing for an acquittal, Lady Eldon would be found not guilty because no customs interest was actually placed at risk and even “successful” completion would not have constituted a crime.

## Legal Principles

- Attempt liability generally requires (1) intent to commit the target offense and (2) conduct constituting a substantial step toward its commission.
- On a belief-based approach, attempt is assessed in light of the circumstances as the actor believes them to be; factual or circumstantial mistakes do not bar liability if the intended act would be criminal under the believed facts.
- On an impossibility or harm-based approach, attempt liability is limited where, even if the actor completes her plan, the completed conduct would not be criminal under the actual legal and factual situation.
- The hypothetical is commonly used to test the coherence of distinguishing “factual” from “legal” impossibility in attempt doctrine and to evaluate whether criminal punishment should track intent alone or also require a real-world threat to a legally protected interest.

## Conclusion

The Lady Eldon hypothetical frames the core dispute in attempt law: whether intent plus substantial steps suffices for liability when the actor’s plan cannot culminate in a crime because the object is not legally within the offense’s scope, yielding competing answers of conviction (belief-based) or acquittal (harm-based).


The Case of Lady Eldon’s French Lace (Hypothetical)