Essential Cases: Criminal Law provides a bridge between course textbooks and key case judgments. This case document summarizes the facts and decision in R v Dowds [2012] EWCA 2576, Court of Appeal. The document also included supporting commentary from author Jonathan Herring.
12
Chapter
R v Dowds [2012] EWCA 2576, Court of Appeal
Chapter
R v Bree [2007] EWCA Crim 804, Court of Appeal
Essential Cases: Criminal Law provides a bridge between course textbooks and key case judgments. This case document summarizes the facts and decision in R v Bree [2007] EWCA Crim 804, Court of Appeal. The document also included supporting commentary from author Jonathan Herring.
Chapter
R v Dowds [2012] EWCA 2576, Court of Appeal
Essential Cases: Criminal Law provides a bridge between course textbooks and key case judgments. This case document summarizes the facts and decision in R v Dowds [2012] EWCA 2576, Court of Appeal. The document also included supporting commentary from author Jonathan Herring.
Chapter
R v Bree [2007] EWCA Crim 804, Court of Appeal
Essential Cases: Criminal Law provides a bridge between course textbooks and key case judgments. This case document summarizes the facts and decision in R v Bree [2007] EWCA Crim 804, Court of Appeal. The document also included supporting commentary from author Jonathan Herring.
Chapter
22. Additional chapter: Capacity
This chapter considers the scope of contractual capacity, noting the tension in the law between the need to protect someone who is incapacitated and the desire to not treat too harshly the person dealing fairly with the incapacitated person. The general rule is that a minor will not be bound by a contract, although the person contracting with them will be. There are exceptions which will bind both parties unless the minor repudiates, and on becoming 18 a minor may ratify a contract made before that date. The law recognizes the general incapacity to contract of minors, the mentally incapacitated, and in certain circumstances where an individual is intoxicated. An adult of sound mind has full contractual capacity, although they may be able to claim that the contract is not enforceable on some other basis, for example undue influence.
Chapter
R v Taj [2018] EWCA Crim 1743, Court of Appeal
Essential Cases: Criminal Law provides a bridge between course textbooks and key case judgments. This case document summarizes the facts and decision in R v Taj [2018] EWCA Crim 1743, Court of Appeal. The document also included supporting commentary from author Jonathan Herring.
Chapter
R v Taj [2018] EWCA Crim 1743, Court of Appeal
Essential Cases: Criminal Law provides a bridge between course textbooks and key case judgments. This case document summarizes the facts and decision in R v Taj [2018] EWCA Crim 1743, Court of Appeal. The document also included supporting commentary from author Jonathan Herring.
Chapter
7. Excusatory Defences
This chapter discusses ‘excusatory’ defences. These are defences that are concerned with absence of fault or culpability in a broader sense than is understood by a ‘fault element’ when such an element is included in the definition of an offence. Even when an accused person (say) intended to harm another person, and thus possessed the fault element in the definition of the crime, he or she may still be all but blameless if, for example, what was done was done only because he or she would be killed if the action was not undertaken. In that regard, the chapter covers duress and coercion, reasonable mistake, and ‘putative’ defences. The ‘defence’ of intoxication is also tackled here, even though it is not really an excuse in the sense just explained.
Book
David Ormerod and Karl Laird
Smith, Hogan, and Ormerod’s Criminal Law: Text, Cases, and Materials is a guide to the criminal law. The text is supplemented by extracts from the key criminal law cases, together with other essential materials from statutes, reports, and articles. This edition has been significantly revised and restructured to present the materials in an order that closely matches the structure of contemporary courses on criminal law. The latest legislation and all of the recent cases that continue to shape the law are included. The book has, from the first edition, examined all the aspects of the criminal law that would be expected to be found in the undergraduate syllabus, and has been revised and restructured to ensure that this latest edition reflects the modern undergraduate course.
Chapter
3. Mens Rea: The Mental Element
Mens rea is the legal term used to describe the element of a criminal offence that relates to the defendant’s mental state. Different crimes have different mentes reae: some require intention, others recklessness, negligence, or knowledge. Some crimes do not require proof of any mental state of the defendant. It has often been suggested that mens rea plays the crucial role of ensuring that only blameworthy defendants are punished for their crimes; however, a defendant’s blameworthiness or state of mind is only part of the picture. This chapter considers the following concepts that are used throughout criminal law: (a) intention; (b) recklessness; (c) negligence; and (d) knowledge.
Chapter
3. Mens Rea: The Mental Element
Mens rea is the legal term used to describe the element of a criminal offence that relates to the defendant’s mental state. Different crimes have different mentes reae: some require intention, others recklessness, negligence, or knowledge. Some crimes do not require proof of any mental state of the defendant. It has often been suggested that mens rea plays the crucial role of ensuring that only blameworthy defendants are punished for their crimes; however, a defendant’s blameworthiness or state of mind is only part of the picture. This chapter considers the following concepts that are used throughout criminal law: (a) intention; (b) recklessness; (c) negligence; and (d) knowledge.
Chapter
13. Defences I: incapacity and negating the elements of the offence
Without assuming prior legal knowledge, books in the Directions series introduce and guide readers through key points of law and legal debate. Questions, diagrams, and exercises help readers to engage fully with each subject and check their understanding as they progress. This chapter discusses the following general defences: infancy, insanity, automatism, intoxication (involuntary and voluntary), and mistake. Children under the age of ten are conclusively presumed incapable of committing a criminal offence. Insanity (insane automatism) is concerned with the defendant’s mental condition at the time of the offence. Automatism is available where the defendant suffers a total loss of control or is unaware of what he is doing. Involuntary intoxication may be a defence to any offence if the defendant does not have the mens rea for that offence. Voluntary intoxication is no defence to a basic intent offence. A mistake as to civil law may negate the mens rea of an offence.
Chapter
14. Defences I
Each Concentrate revision guide is packed with essential information, key cases, revision tips, exam Q&As, and more. Concentrates show you what to expect in a law exam, what examiners are looking for, and how to achieve extra marks. This chapter examines the defences of age, insanity, automatism, intoxication, and mistake. If D is under the age of ten, he is deemed incapable of criminal liability. Insanity is where D proves he had a disease of mind which caused a defect of reason so that D did not know the nature and quality of his act or that it was wrong. Non-insane automatism is an assertion by D that the prosecution cannot prove the actus reus of the offence because D was not in control of his muscular movements. Intoxication rarely succeeds as a defence. Involuntary intoxication is a defence if D does not form mens rea. Voluntary intoxication is a defence only if D is charged with a specific intent crime and D did not form mens rea. Mistake is a defence provided the mistake prevents D forming mens rea.
Chapter
8. Corporate and vicarious liability
This chapter focuses on the potential criminal liability of organizations, particularly corporations. Corporations have a separate legal identity and are treated in law as having a legal personality distinct from the people who make up the corporation. Therefore, in theory at least, criminal liability may be imposed on the corporation separately from any liability imposed on the individual members. There are currently six ways in which a corporation or its directors may be prosecuted: personal liability of corporate directors, etc; strict liability offences; statutory offences imposing duties on corporations; vicarious liability; the identification doctrine; and statutory liability of corporate officers. The chapter also discusses the limits of corporate liability, the distinction between vicarious liability and personal duty, the application of vicarious liability, the delegation principle, and the ‘attributed act’ principle. The chapter examines the failure-to-prevent offences found in the Bribery Act 2010 and the Criminal Finances Act 2017, and the most recent forms of offence created in the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023.
Chapter
9. Mental conditions, intoxication, and mistake
This chapter considers the most commonly occurring ‘mental condition defences’, focusing on the pleas of insanity, intoxication, and mistake. It also examines the relationship between mental condition defences, insanity, and unfitness to be tried, and explains the Law Commission’s recommendations for reforming unfitness and other mental condition defences. It explores the test of insanity, disease of the mind (insanity) versus external factors (sane automatism), insane delusions and insanity, burden of proof, function of the jury, self-induced automatism, intoxication as a denial of criminal responsibility, voluntary and involuntary intoxication, dangerous or non-dangerous drugs in basic intent crime, and intoxication induced with the intention of committing crime.
Chapter
7. Defences
The Concentrate Questions and Answers series offers the best preparation for tackling exam questions. Each book includes typical questions, diagram answer plans, suggested answers, author commentary, and advice on study skills. This chapter presents sample exam questions focusing on the defences. The chapter covers the mental defences of insanity, automatism, and intoxication, as well as the compulsion defences of duress, necessity, and self-defence. Defences affecting the mental element can be quite similar, and there is considerable overlap. Therefore, questions on these defences need to be tackled technically and logically. The test for duress is tighter than in the past, and there is considerable debate over whether the defence of necessity exists at all.
Chapter
5. Capacity and incapacitating conditions
Michael J. Allen and Ian Edwards
Course-focused and comprehensive, the Textbook on series provides an accessible overview of the key areas on the law curriculum. A person should only be held criminally liable where they have the capacity to understand their actions, and to recognise the consequences which may flow from them, and, having understood them, where they have the capacity to control them. The criminal law recognises the requirement of rational capacity by excepting persons who lack rational capacity from liability in certain circumstances. This chapter examines the issues of the age of criminal responsibility, insanity, and the M’Naghten Rules (including analysis of the meaning of a ‘disease of the mind’ and the cognitive tests for determining whether someone is legally insane), automatism, and intoxication (with analysis of the distinction between offences of specific intent and basic intent). A Law in Context feature explores the treatment of mentally disordered defendants and offenders in the criminal justice system.
Chapter
12. Defences
This chapter begins with a discussion of the law on defences. Even though the prosecution may have proved the mens rea and actus reus of the offence, a defendant may still be able to escape conviction if they can successfully raise a defence. The chapter covers private defence and the prevention of crime; necessity; chastisement; consent; duress; coercion; entrapment; superior orders; automatism; insanity; diminished responsibility; loss of control; intoxication; and mistake. The second part of the chapter focuses on the theory of defences, covering the definition of defences; justifications and excuses; character, choice, and capacity; determinism; the rejection of an overarching theory; insanity; private defence; duress; necessity; and issues that fall between the gaps of the defences.
Chapter
5. Capacity and incapacitating conditions
Michael J. Allen and Ian Edwards
Course-focused and contextual, Criminal Law provides a succinct overview of the key areas on the law curriculum balanced with thought-provoking contextual discussion. A person should only be held criminally liable where he has the capacity to understand his actions, and to recognise the consequences which may flow from them; and, having understood them, where he has the capacity to control them. The criminal law recognises the requirement of rational capacity by excepting persons who lack rational capacity from liability in certain circumstances. This chapter examines the issues of the age of criminal responsibility, insanity and the M’Naghten Rules (including analysis of the meaning of a ‘disease of the mind’ and the cognitive tests for determining whether someone is legally insane), automatism, and intoxication (with analysis of the distinction between offences of specific intent and basic intent). A revised and updated ‘The law in context’ feature explores the treatment of mentally disordered defendants and offenders in the criminal justice system.
Chapter
13. Denials of an offence
This chapter deals with the rules on denials of an offence, a denial of one or more actus reus or mens rea elements. In particular, it considers three sets of rules relating to the denial of an offence: intoxication, sane automatism, and insanity. As well as discussing how each of these rules can be used by D to avoid liability, the chapter also focusses on how circumstances of ‘prior-fault’ can be used by the prosecution to substitute for missing mens rea elements so as to construct liability. It also outlines potential options for legal reform concerning intoxication, sane automatism, and insanity, and concludes by considering how denials of offending based on intoxication, automatism, and insanity should be applied to problem facts. Relevant cases are highlighted throughout the chapter, with brief summaries of the main facts and judgments.
12
