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Intention In English Law
In English criminal law, intention is one of the types of ''mens rea'' (Latin for "guilty mind") that, when accompanied by an ''actus reus'' (Latin for "guilty act"), constitutes a crime. The standard definitions Judges normally do not define ''intention'' for juries, and the weight of authority is to give it its current meaning in everyday language as directed by the House of Lords in ''R v Moloney'', where can be found references to a number of definitions of ''intention'' using subjective and objective tests, and knowledge of consequences of actions or omissions. Intention is generally defined in terms of foresight of particular consequences and a desire to act or fail to act so that those consequences occur. It is distinguished from recklessness because, on a subjective basis, there is foresight but no desire to produce the consequences. But the perennial problem has always been the extent to which the court can impute sufficient desire to convert recklessness into intent ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
English Law
English law is the common law list of national legal systems, legal system of England and Wales, comprising mainly English criminal law, criminal law and Civil law (common law), civil law, each branch having its own Courts of England and Wales, courts and Procedural law, procedures. The judiciary is judicial independence, independent, and legal principles like Procedural justice, fairness, equality before the law, and the right to a fair trial are foundational to the system. Principal elements Although the common law has, historically, been the foundation and prime source of English law, the most authoritative law is statutory legislation, which comprises Act of Parliament, Acts of Parliament, Statutory Instrument, regulations and by-laws. In the absence of any statutory law, the common law with its principle of ''stare decisis'' forms the residual source of law, based on judicial decisions, custom, and usage. Common law is made by sitting judges who apply both United Kingdom l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jury
A jury is a sworn body of people (jurors) convened to hear evidence, make Question of fact, findings of fact, and render an impartiality, impartial verdict officially submitted to them by a court, or to set a sentence (law), penalty or Judgment (law), judgment. Most trial juries are "petit juries", and consist of up to 15 people. A larger jury known as a grand jury has been used to investigate potential crimes and render indictments against suspects, and consists of between 16 and 23 jurors. The jury system developed in England during the Middle Ages and is a hallmark of the English common law system. Juries are commonly used in countries whose legal systems derive from the British Empire, such as the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, and Republic of Ireland, Ireland. They are not used in most other countries, whose legal systems are based upon European Civil law (legal system), civil law or Islamic sharia, sharia law, although their use has been spreading. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Patrick Devlin, Baron Devlin
Patrick Arthur Devlin, Baron Devlin, PC, FBA (25 November 1905 – 9 August 1992) was a British judge and legal philosopher. The second-youngest English High Court judge in the 20th century, he served as a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary from 1960 to 1964. In 1959, Devlin headed the Devlin Commission, which reported on the State of Emergency declared by the colonial governor of Nyasaland. In 1985 he became the first British judge to write a book about a case he had presided over, the 1957 trial of suspected serial killer John Bodkin Adams.Devlin, Patrick; "Easing the Passing", London, The Bodley Head, 1985 Devlin was involved in the debate about homosexuality in British law; in response to the Wolfenden report, he argued, contrary to H. L. A. Hart, that a common public morality should be upheld. Devlin's daughter Clare, then aged 81, said in 2021 that her father had sexually abused her from the age of 7 until her teens. Early life and education Patrick Devlin was born ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Double Effect
The principle of double effect – also known as the rule of double effect, the doctrine of double effect, often abbreviated as DDE or PDE, double-effect reasoning, or simply double effect – is a set of ethical criteria which Christian philosophers have advocated for evaluating the permissibility of acting when one's otherwise legitimate act may also cause an effect one would otherwise be obliged to avoid. The first known example of double-effect reasoning is Thomas Aquinas' treatment of homicidal self-defense, in his work ''Summa Theologica''. This set of criteria states that, if an action has foreseeable harmful effects that are practically inseparable from the good effect, it is justifiable if the following are true: * the nature of the act is itself good, or at least morally neutral; * the agent intends the good effect and does not intend the bad effect, either as a means to the good or as an end in itself; * the good effect outweighs the bad effect in circumstances suffici ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grievous Bodily Harm
Assault occasioning grievous bodily harm (often abbreviated to GBH) is a term used in English criminal law to describe the severest forms of battery. It refers to two offences that are created by sections 18 and 20 of the Offences against the Person Act 1861. The distinction between these two sections is the requirement of specific intent for section 18; the offence under section 18 is variously referred to as "wounding with intent" or "causing grievous bodily harm with intent", Archbold Criminal Pleading, Evidence and Practice, 1999, paragraph 19-201 at page 1614 whereas the offence under section 20 is variously referred to as "unlawful wounding", "malicious wounding" or "inflicting grievous bodily harm". Statute Section 18 This section now reads: The words omitted in the first to third places specifically included shooting or attempting to shoot, and included some words considered redundant; they were repealed by section 10(2) of, and Part III of Schedule 3 to, the Crim ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
R V Woollin
''R v Woollin'' was an English criminal law case in which the House of Lords clarified the type of intention required to establish the mens rea of murder. The House ultimately quashed Woollin’s murder conviction and substituted a conviction of manslaughter. Facts Having given various explanations for his three-month-old son's injuries in the ambulance and in the first two police interviews, Woollin eventually admitted that he had 'lost his cool' when his son would not stop crying for hours. He had picked him up, shaken him and thrown him across the room with considerable force towards a pram next to a wall about away. He stated that he had not intended nor thought that he would kill the child and had not wanted the child to die. His actions caused the infant's death as the child hit the floor hard, missing the pram. Appeals Woollin's murder conviction was upheld in the Court of Appeal. The House of Lords, not the lower court, gave leave to appeal as the jury instructions we ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Murder In English Law
Murder is an offence under the common law legal system of England and Wales. It is considered the most serious form of homicide, in which one person kills another with the intention to unlawfully cause either death or serious injury. The element of intentionality was originally termed malice aforethought, although it required neither malice nor premeditation. Baker states that many killings done with a high degree of subjective recklessness were treated as murder from the 12th century right through until the 1974 decision in ''DPP v Hyam''. Because murder is generally defined in law as an intent to cause serious harm or injury (alone or with others), combined with a death arising from that intention, there are certain circumstances where a death will be treated as murder even if the defendant did not wish to kill the actual victim. This is called " transferred malice", and arises in two common cases: * The defendant intended serious harm to one or more persons, but an unintended ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Court Of Appeal Of England And Wales
The Court of Appeal (formally "His Majesty's Court of Appeal in England", commonly cited as "CA", "EWCA" or "CoA") is the highest court within the Senior Courts of England and Wales, and second in the legal system of England and Wales only to the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom. The Court of Appeal was created in 1875, and today comprises 39 Lord Justices of Appeal and Lady Justices of Appeal. The court has two divisions, Criminal and Civil, led by the Lady Chief Justice and the Master of the Rolls respectively. Criminal appeals are heard in the Criminal Division, and civil appeals in the Civil Division. The Criminal Division hears appeals from the Crown Court, while the Civil Division hears appeals from the County Court, High Court of Justice and Family Court. Permission to appeal is normally required from either the lower court or the Court of Appeal itself; and with permission, further appeal may lie to the Supreme Court. Its decisions are binding on all courts, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
R V Nedrick
''R v Nedrick'' 986EWCA Crim 2 is an English criminal law case dealing with mens rea in murder. The case is a cornerstone as it sets down the "virtual certainty test". It applies wherever a form of indirect (oblique) intention is apparent and the charge is one of murder, or other very specific intent. The appellate court ruled, as a binding precedent, that in the law of murder there will be no case to answer where intention to offend is inferred, unless the actions of the defendant are so dangerous that death or serious injury is a virtual certainty. Facts The defendant, Hansford Delroy Nedrick, had a grudge against a woman named Viola Foreshaw and threatened to "burn her out". On January 25, 1985, he poured paraffin oil through the letterbox of Foreshaw's home. The fire got out of control and one of Foreshaw's children, a boy named Lloyd, was killed. The defendant claimed he wished to frighten the victim rather than kill anyone. Appellate decision reasoning The court set down ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Criminal Justice Act 1967
The Criminal Justice Act 1967 (c. 80) is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Section 9 allows uncontroversial witness statements to be read in court instead of having to call the witness to give live testimony in the courtroom, if it will not be necessary to challenge their evidence in cross-examination. The rule in section 9 was not new in 1967; it was a re-enactment of a law which had previously appeared in the Criminal Justice Act 1925 and the Criminal Justice Act 1948. Section 13 removed the requirement for unanimous verdicts and permitted majority verdicts for juries in England and Wales. (This section was repealed and replaced by the Juries Act 1974.) Sections 39 to 42 introduced the ability for courts to suspend a sentence. Section 89 makes it an offence to lie in a witness statement (since perjury only applies to lies told in court). See also *Criminal Justice Act References *"Criminal Justice Act 1967". Halsbury's Statutes of England and Wales. Fou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Criminal Law
Criminal law is the body of law that relates to crime. It proscribes conduct perceived as threatening, harmful, or otherwise endangering to the property, health, safety, and Well-being, welfare of people inclusive of one's self. Most criminal law is established by statute, which is to say that the laws are enacted by a legislature. Criminal law includes the punishment and Rehabilitation (penology), rehabilitation of people who violate such laws. Criminal law varies according to jurisdiction, and differs from Civil law (common law), civil law, where emphasis is more on dispute resolution and victim compensation, rather than on punishment or Rehabilitation (penology), rehabilitation. Criminal procedure is a formalized official activity that authenticates the fact of commission of a crime and authorizes punitive or rehabilitative treatment of the Criminal, offender. History The first Civilization, civilizations generally did not distinguish between Civil law (area), civil law and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Imputation (law)
In law, the principle of imputation or attribution underpins the concept that — ignorance of the law does not excuse. All laws are published and available for study in all developed states. The said imputation might also be termed "fair notice". The content of the law is imputed to all persons who are within the jurisdiction, no matter how transiently. This fiction tries to negate the unfairness of someone avoiding liability for an act or omission by simply denying knowledge of the law. The principle also arises in specific areas of law, such as criminal law and commercial law, to describe the need for the law to hold a person liable, even when they may not have known the particular circumstances that caused another person to sustain loss or damage. Criminal law Corporate liability To incur liability for a crime, a person must have both committed a prohibited act (the ''actus reus'', which must be willed: see automatism) and have had an appropriate mental element (the '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
