LOVE'S LABORS LOST: ACHIEVING THE PROMISE OF CALIFORNIA AGRICULTURE BY CULTIVATING AN IMPROVED RESPONSE TO CALIFORNIA'S THEFT OF LABOR PROBLEM

摘要

California is one of the very few states in the nation that subsumes an intangible "labor" into its definition of theft. By amendment in 1927, California Penal Code section 484 combined the crimes of larceny, embezzlement, false pretenses and other kindred offenses into one crime designated as theft. At common law theft had been restricted to just tangible property. Such items as money, real or personal property were historically the proper objects of theft. Without displacing any elements of the former crimes, the new statute deemed any fraudulent obtaining of the labor or services of another as theft as well.