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 on mixed topics. The styles adopted for criminal law examination questions can vary enormously. Some examiners will set problem questions that focus largely on one area, others will set mixed questions which cut right across the syllabus. A mixed question requires knowledge of a wide variety of often unrelated topics. There are some classic combinations such as sexual offences and offences against the person or murder/manslaughter, but candidates should be aware that some topics, such as defences and actus reus and mens rea are pervasive. Mixed questions will generally be of two types: (i) where candidates have to cover a vast number of issues briefly; (ii) where candidates need to cover some issues briefly, but others in some depth. This chapter presents examples of mixed questions and suggested answers. Some typical areas for combination are presented.
Chapter
9. Mixed Questions
Chapter
4. Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person
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 on non-fatal offences against the person and suggested answers. The questions cover all the typical offences against the person one would expect to find on a standard criminal law syllabus. The emphasis in this chapter is on the Offences Against the Person Act 1861, in particular ss 18, 20, and 47. Common law assault and battery are also covered. Self-defence and the common law defence of consent are also considered.
Chapter
1. Introduction
This chapter advises on how to approach the subject of Public Law and deal with typical exam questions. Public law differs from the other compulsory law subjects in that much is not really law at all, and therefore calls for different skills in the student. To understand public law properly it helps to have some knowledge of current affairs and politics. Public Law is sometimes called constitutional and administrative law, because it looks at both the constitution of the country and the law that regulates the administration. The chapter contains advice on how to answer a problem question using Issue, Relevant Law, Application to the Facts, and Conclusion (IRAC) and how to answer an essay question using Point, Evidence, and Argument (PEA). Preparation for examinations is also covered. When writing an essay, it is best for students to do a rough plan first, listing the main points that they intend to cover. For a problem question, they might also include a list of the main cases. In this subject, it is important to remember that there is no right answer to an exam question, but there is a right way to approach it.
Chapter
5. Sexual Offences
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 on sexual offences and suggested answers. Students should be aware of the key provisions of the Sexual Offences Act 2003, and the presumptions as to consent contained in ss 75 and 76 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003. The concept of reasonable belief is central to this topic. The Act sought to remedy problems in the old law relating to consent and created a new definition of rape, as well as shifting the responsibility for obtaining consent to the defendant in some circumstances.
Chapter
8. Secondary Liability and Inchoate Offences
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 on the inchoate offences and accessories, along with suggested answers. The doctrine of joint enterprise is also considered, especially the decision in R v Jogee, which reverses the previous common law position. Inchoate offences and issues of accessorial liability can feature on exam papers in the form of questions dealing with discrete topics, but typically they will feature as part of a problem question dealing with a range of substantive offences. For this reason, candidates sometimes fail to prepare properly to deal with these areas. There is also the fact that accessorial liability is amongst the most confusing and conceptually difficult areas of criminal liability. Some clarity has been achieved in this area in the Supreme Court’s decision in R v Jogee.
Book
The Concentrate Questions and Answers series offer the best preparation for tackling exam questions. Each book includes typical questions, bullet-pointed answer plans and suggested answers, author commentary, and illustrative diagrams and flowcharts. Concentrate Q&A EU Law looks at a wide range of up-to-date issues relating to EU law, starting with the origins, institutions, and development of the EU communities and the legislative processes. Chapters then look at the sources and forms of EU law, supremacy of EU law, and the reception of the law in the EU Member States. The chapter on Supremacy will also consider Brexit, but the extent to which that will be covered will be determined by just how far the exit negotiations have themselves progressed. The Court of Justice has a chapter devoted to it. The book then considers the free movement of goods and persons. Finally, the text turns to competition and merger law and sex discrimination and equality law.
Chapter
1. Exam Skills for Success in EU Law
The Concentrate Questions and Answers series offer the best preparation for tackling exam questions. Each book includes typical questions, bullet-pointed answer plans and suggested answers, author commentary and illustrative diagrams and flowcharts. This introductory chapter sets out the book’s purpose, which is to provide a number of example questions on European Union (EU) law, which should be fairly typical of those met on degree level courses on EU law. The questions are then followed by a few sentences or paragraphs of comment on the type of question, the main aspects or elements to be considered in the question, various examiner’s tips on particular issues to be aware of, to include or indeed to avoid, and advice on structuring the answer. The suggested answers are designed to demonstrate how the particular questions should be answered to get a good mark, i.e., an upper second or better.
Chapter
14. Mixed Topic Questions
The Concentrate Questions and Answers series offers the best preparation for tackling exam questions. Each book includes typical questions, answer plans and suggested answers, author commentary, and other features. This chapter introduces students to examination questions which contain overlapping topics. Clearly, if students identify all the relevant areas then they will have established a firm base from which a good answer can be developed. The chapter aims to illustrate how different topics may be contained within one question; the suggested answers offer an explanation of how such questions may be approached in a written answer.
Chapter
3. Murder and Manslaughter
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 on murder and manslaughter and suggested answers. The key issues of direct and oblique intent as it applies to murder are considered. The chapter also deals with the changes to the partial defences to murder (loss of control and diminished responsibility) brought about by the statutory provisions in the Coroners and Justice Act 2009, and the differences between the types of involuntary manslaughter (by an unlawful act, by gross negligence, and by recklessness).
Chapter
6. Property Offences
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 on theft, fraud, and other property offences such as robbery and burglary, along with suggested answers. The law of property is vast, and contained in a number of different pieces of legislation. As this chapter explains, the Fraud Act 2006 was designed to replace many of the discrepancies and inconsistencies in the diverse provisions of the Theft Acts of 1968 and 1978. It pays to be methodical in approaching property problems. Dishonesty is an important concept throughout the property offences. The recent decision in Ivey v Genting Casinos, which has an important effect on the definition of dishonesty in criminal law, is dealt with in detail in this chapter.
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.
