Midterm Review Flashcards
What is Actus Reus
The Acts Reus is compromised of prohibited (voluntarily) conduct that occurs in certain circumstances resulting in harmful consequences
The Three C’s for Actus Reus
Conduct - Direct or Indirect application of force
Circumstances - Without the person’s consent
Consequences - Sustained actual bodily harm (it is not just physical but also mental)
AR for s.215 (Failure to provide the necessities of life)
Conduct - Failing to provide the necessities of life (omission)
Circumstances - Relationship of dependence (parent, partner, caregiver)
Consequences - The conduct causes or is likely to cause the health of the dependent to be endangered permanently
What is the Harbottle Test
The accused’s conduct must constitute a “substantial and integral cause”
This applies in cases of first-degree murder
What is the Smithers Test
The accused’s conduct must constitute a “contributing cause outside the de minimis range
Test for causation in all criminal charges involving homicide. Superseded by Nette
What is the Nette Test
The accused’s conduct must constitute a “significant contributing cause”
Test for causation in all criminal charges involving homicide
What is Factual Causation
But for the actions of the accused, the son would still be alive
What is Legal Causation
Was the death of the son reasonably foreseeable?
Mens Rea three C’s
Conduct: Acts intentionally
Circumstances: Aware of the victim’s lack of consent
Consequences: Awareness of potential consequences
What is Mens Rea
A guilty mind also known as the fault element.
All mental elements (except voluntariness) meaning your actions need to be part of your will
What is Subjective MR
The accused must
deliberately intent - Bring about the consequences
and
subjectively realize - Being aware if the possibility
What are the objectives of MR
What any reasonable person would know
Someone who thinks they are a really good driving thinks they can drive fast in the winter, so subjectively they dont think they are putting anyone at risk but objectively they are
What is Intention
1 - Conscious prupose
2 - forces the consequences that are likely to result and acts in that manner anyways
(go to swing your fist but your doing it to get him out of the way, or as a joke, if you foresee how likely it is your going to assault him it can still be seen as intention)
What is wilful blindness
You are wilfully blind to the truth
You have enough information to know what is going on
Wilful blindness can substitute for knowledge
What is Recklessness
Knowledge of danger or risk, and then proceeding with a course of conduct which created a risk that prohibited results will occur
What is marked departure
The accused person conduct fell far below the conduct expected of a reasonable person in those consequences
Thin Skull Rules
The thin skull rule stands for the principle that a party at fault in causing an accident and an injury cannot avoid responsibility for paying compensation simply because a pre-existing medical condition makes the victim more susceptible than others to being injured.
Inchoate Offences
Crimes are unique class of criminal offences int he sense that they criminalize acts that precede harmful conduct but do not necessarily inflict harmful consequences ina nd of themselves
Counselling offence that is not committed
Everyone who counsels another person to commit an indictable offence, is if the offence is not committed, guilty of an indictable offence and liable to the same punishment to which a person who attempts to commit that offence is liable
Everyone who coucnels another person to commit an offence punishable on summary conviction is if the offence is not committed, guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction
Conspiracy
A conspiracy consists not merely in the intention of two or more, but in the agreement of two or more to do an unlawful act or do an lawful acr unlawful means
AR: The agreement between two or more persons to commit a crime
MR: Intention to agree AND intention to carry out the agreement
What are the Defences
Mistake
Automatism and NCRMD
Provocation and Intoxication
Necessity and Self-Defence
What is a Mistake of Fact?
Subjective MR:
- The accused made an honest mistake
- Did the accused choose to engage in criminal behaviour
Objective MR:
- Was the accused’s mistake reasonable
While subjective MR does not require a reasonableness test, if a mistake is unreasonable this undermines the credibility
What is NCRMD
Those who commit criminal acts because of mental illness. At the time of the offence, the accused was experiencing a mental disorder
Usually, the accused will have to have a disorder that manifests as psychotic symptoms
What is Automatism
A state of impaired consciousness… in which an individual, though capable of action, has no voluntary control over that action
Severely colluded consciousness that prevents the accused from acting voluntarily
What are the categories of automatism?
- Caused by “normal” conditions such as sleeping walking or hypnosis
- Triggered by an external trauma, such as a blow to the head
- Involuntarily induced by alcohol or drugs (Non-insane automatism)
- Voluntarily self-induced by alcohol or drugs (Intoxication)
- Caused by a “disease of the mind” (NCRMD)
What is Provocation?
“You’re so stupid”
The heat of passion caused by sudden provocation
On the sudden and before there was time for his passion to cool
This only applies in cases of murder > reduced charge to manslaughter
What are the levels of intoxication?
Mild Intoxication
- Never a defence
Advanced Intoxxicationo
- Accused lacks foresight to understand the consequences of their actions
- Defence for specific intent offence
Extreme Intoxication
- Similar to automatism. Intoxication that means the accused it not acting voluntarily, and can be used as a defence to general intent offences
What is Necessity
An excuse when the accused can only avoid calamity or disaster by breaking the law
Ex. Speeding to the hospital
Justification > Under the circumstances, was the action really wrong
Excuse > The action was wrong, but the wrongness of the act should not be attributed to the actor
What is Self-Defence
A person is not guilty of an offence if
they belive on reasonable grounds that force is being used against them or another or that a threat of force is being made against them or another person
The act that constitutes the offence is committed for the purpose of defending or protecting themselves or the other person from that use or threat or force
The act committed is reasonable in the circumstances
