involuntary manslaughter

Question 1

what is the actus reus of unlawful act manslaughter?

Answer 1

• d must commit an unlawful act
• the act must cause v’s death
• the act must be dangerous

Question 2

what is element 1 of unlawful act manslaughter ?

Answer 2

• d must commit an unlawful act
• an omission is not enough

Question 3

what does r v stone and dobinson say?

Answer 3

a failure will be insufficient for unlawful act manslaughter - there must be an act

Question 4

what does R v Franklin say?

Answer 4

unlawful act must be a criminal act - a civil wrong is not enough

Question 5

what does r v lamb say?

Answer 5

the unlawful act must be complete (all elements passed)

Question 6

what is element 2 of unlawful act manslaughter?

Answer 6

d must have the mens rea for the unlawful act

Question 7

what is the mens rea for unlawful act manslaughter?

Answer 7

d must have mens rea for the unlawful act

Question 8

what does dpp v newbury and jones say?

Answer 8

it isn’t necessary to prove that d foresaw any harm from his act; d only needs to have the mens rea of the unlawful act

Question 9

what does r v mitchell say?

Answer 9

malice can be transferred from one victim to another

Question 10

what is element 3 of unlawful act manslaughter?

Answer 10

-unlawful act must cause the death
-it must be proved that d’s unlawful act caused v’s death

Question 11

what are the cases for factual causation?

Answer 11

-r v pagett
-r v white

Question 12

what are the cases for legal causation?

Answer 12

-r v jordan
-r v smith

Question 13

what is the thin skull rule and what is the case for it?

Answer 13

-any hidden characteristic that d has that makes the more vulnerable - d should take v as they find them
- r v blaue

Question 14

what does r v dear say?

Answer 14

self neglect by the victim does not break the chain of causation

Question 15

what does r v cato say? how does it differ from r v kennedy?

Answer 15

-cato: d injects v with the drug
-kennedy: d breaks the link between them and d by injecting the drug themselves

Question 16

what is element 4 of unlawful act manslaughter?

Answer 16

-the unlawful act must be dangerous
-the meaning of dangerous in UAM is different to normal meaning

Question 17

what is the Church test? what does it say?

Answer 17

an act is dangerous if a sober and reasonable person would realise that it carries a risk of some physical harm to another person

Question 18

who is classed as a reasonable person?

Answer 18

a bystander

Question 19

what does r v dawson and r v watson say?

Answer 19

emotional harm is not enough, the harm must be physical and foreseeable

Question 20

what does R v JM and SM say?

Answer 20

there is no need for the sober and reasonable person to foresee the specific harm from which v died, only that d would suffer physical harm in some form

Question 21

what does R v Goodfellow say?

Answer 21

unlawful act manslaughter can be aimed at property as long as the sober and reasonable person would realise it carried the risk of some physical harm to a person

Question 22

what does R v Farnon and Ellis say?

Answer 22

d will always be compared to the sober and reasonable person, even if d is not sober nor reasonable