General Elements of Liability (P1)

Question 1

What is the definition of a crime?

Answer 1

Forbidden by the state for which there is a punishment. The conduct must be wrongful & necessary to condemn or prevent such conduct

Question 2

What is the role of the state in relation to crime?

Answer 2

Criminal law is mainly set down by the state of parliament, impose penalties, prosecution is therefore seen as part of the role of state.

Question 3

What is the definition of Actus Reus?

Answer 3

Physical element or the prohibited conduct of a crime. An act a failure to act (omission) or a ‘state of affairs’. Prohibited conduct must be voluntary, consequence required for the offence to be completed, prohibited conduct must cause that consequence.

Question 4

What is a conduct crime?

Answer 4

Not necessary for consequence to be proved

Question 5

What is a consequence crime?

Answer 5

Prohibited conduct must result in a consequence, eg assault must have an application/threat of unlawful force but also a consequence of ABH AR

Question 6

What is a state of affair crime?

Answer 6

D is responsible. Having a weapon on you in a public space even if it isn’t yours & you haven’t used it.

Question 7

What is the normal rule in regards to omissions?

Answer 7

An omission cannot make a person guilty if an offence

Question 8

What are the six different circumstances where a person can be liable for not doing something? (guilty by omission)

Answer 8

1. A statutory duty - failing to stop at a crash
2. A contractual duty - Failing to do something in your contract
3. A duty due to relationship - parent and child
4. A voluntary duty - not looking after a child you volunteered to look after
5. A duty through ones official condition - an on-duty police officer failing to intervene
6. A duty that offender has set in motion - not setting out a fire, r v miller.

Question 9

What is the Mens Rea?

Answer 9

the mental element of a crime (guilty mind)

Question 10

What are strict liability offences?

Answer 10

Prosecution only needs to prove AR not MR.

Question 11

Standard of proof

Answer 11

Usually on the prosecution, beyon reasonable doubt

Question 12

Burden of proof

Answer 12

Usually on prosecution

Question 13

What is factual causation?

Answer 13

The D can only be guilty if the consequence would not have happened ‘but for’ the Ds conduct, R v Pagett.

Question 14

R v White

Answer 14

D put poison in his mothers drink intending to kill her. She died of a heart attack before she could drink it. The D did not factually cause her death so he was not guilty of murder

Question 15

What is legal causation?

Answer 15

The D can be guilty if his conduct was more than a minimal cause of the consequence. R v Kimsey

Question 16

What is the thin skull rule?

Answer 16

The D must take the victim as they find them, R v Blaue.

Question 17

How can the chain of causation be broken?

Answer 17

1. an act of a third party
2. the victims own act
3. a natural but unpredictable event.

Question 18

Is medical treatment likely to break the chain of causation?

Answer 18

No, unless it is so independent of the Ds acts and ‘in itself so potent in causing death’ and the Da acts are insignificant.
R v Smith, R v Cheshire, guilty
R v Jordan D not guilty

Question 19

When will victims own actions break the chain of causation?

Answer 19

If the D causes the V to react in a reasonably foreseeable way, R v Roberts (foreseeable), R v Williams & Davis (not foreseeable)

Question 20

What is direct intention?

Answer 20

This means the D sets out to achieve a particular result or consequence. R v Mohan

Question 21

What is oblique intention?

Answer 21

Reckless to the consequence occurring, R v Woolin

Question 22

What is transferred malice?

Answer 22

The MR of the offence is transferred from the intended victim to the actual victim if the AR is present. Eg, John intends to shoot Emma, but misses and shoots Faith. MR to shoot Emma is transferred to Faith. R v Latimer

Question 23

What is the coincidence rule?

Answer 23

When the AR and MR don’t occur at the same time.

Question 24

What is a continuing act?

Answer 24

In situations where the AR comes first, the courts apply the ‘continuing act’ doctrine where the AR is continuing over time to meet the point where the D forms the MR, Fagan v MPC (1969)

Question 25

What is transaction theory?

Answer 25

When there is no continuing act, but instead a series of events, the courts have held that the acts will constitute one transaction, R v Church (1966), R v Le Brun (1992) and originally in Thabo Meli v R (1954)