Culpable homicide is a categorisation of certain offences in various

jurisdiction Jurisdiction (from Latin 'law' and 'speech' or 'declaration') is the legal term for the legal authority granted to a legal entity to enact justice. In federations like the United States, the concept of jurisdiction applies at multiple level ...

s within the

Commonwealth of Nations The Commonwealth of Nations, often referred to as the British Commonwealth or simply the Commonwealth, is an International organization, international association of member states of the Commonwealth of Nations, 56 member states, the vast majo ...

which involves the

homicide Homicide is an act in which a person causes the death of another person. A homicide requires only a Volition (psychology), volitional act, or an omission, that causes the death of another, and thus a homicide may result from Accident, accidenta ...

(illegal killing of a person) either with or without an intention to kill depending upon how a particular jurisdiction has defined the offence. Unusually for those

legal system A legal system is a set of legal norms and institutions and processes by which those norms are applied, often within a particular jurisdiction or community. It may also be referred to as a legal order. The comparative study of legal systems is th ...

s which have originated or been influenced during rule by the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

, the name of the offence associates with

Scots law Scots law () is the List of country legal systems, legal system of Scotland. It is a hybrid or mixed legal system containing Civil law (legal system), civil law and common law elements, that traces its roots to a number of different histori ...

rather than

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, ...

Jurisdictions

"Culpable homicide" offences are found in the following jurisdictions; the description of the local version of the offence is given where available:

Canada

In Canada, "culpable homicide" is not itself an offence. Rather, the term is used in the

Criminal Code A criminal code or penal code is a document that compiles all, or a significant amount of, a particular jurisdiction's criminal law. Typically a criminal code will contain offences that are recognised in the jurisdiction, penalties that might ...

to classify all killings of persons as either culpable or not culpable homicide. There are three types of culpable homicide:

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse committed with the necessary Intention (criminal law), intention as defined by the law in a specific jurisd ...

manslaughter Manslaughter is a common law legal term for homicide considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is sometimes said to have first been made by the ancient Athenian lawmaker Draco in the 7th ce ...

and

infanticide Infanticide (or infant homicide) is the intentional killing of infants or offspring. Infanticide was a widespread practice throughout human history that was mainly used to dispose of unwanted children, its main purpose being the prevention of re ...

. Killings classified as not culpable are justifiable killings; thus the term is used to define the criminal intent or ''

mens rea In criminal law, (; Law Latin for "guilty mind") is the mental state of a defendant who is accused of committing a crime. In common law jurisdictions, most crimes require proof both of ''mens rea'' and '' actus reus'' ("guilty act") before th ...

'' of a killing. Non-culpable homicide includes those committed in self-defence.

India

The offences include causing death whether by intention or not. * Under §299 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), " ..committer ofCulpable homicide" is defined as "Whoever causes death by doing an act with the intention of causing death, or with the intention of causing such bodily injury as is likely to cause death, or with the knowledge that he is likely by such act to cause death, commits the offence of culpable." "Culpable homicide not amounting to murder" is punishable under section 304 of IPC of the Indian Penal Code. It is a non bailable charge with imprisonment up to 10 years with or without fine.

Pakistan

The Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) in earlier form included the offence of "culpable homicide" for acts of homicide resulting from the infliction of intentional harm upon a person: Amendments in recent years have replaced the specific phrase "culpable homicide" within those sections and introduced terms from

Sharia Sharia, Sharī'ah, Shari'a, or Shariah () is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition based on Islamic holy books, scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran, Qur'an and hadith. In Islamic terminology ''sharīʿah'' ...

law but it remains in §38 (Persons concerned in criminal act may be guilty of different offences). The current equivalent sections are: Following sections of the PPC deal further with the offence in increased detail.

Scotland

Culpable homicide is committed where the accused has caused loss of life through wrongful conduct but where there was no intention to kill or "wicked recklessness". It is an offence under

common law Common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law primarily developed through judicial decisions rather than statutes. Although common law may incorporate certain statutes, it is largely based on prece ...

and is roughly equivalent to the offence of manslaughter in the law of England and Wales. While the offence charged remains the same there can be a great variation between individual cases including whether or not the act was voluntary or involuntary: * Voluntary culpable homicide is homicide where the ''

'' for murder is present but mitigating circumstances reduce the crime to culpable homicide. * Involuntary culpable homicide is homicide where the ''mens rea'' for murder is not present but either the independent ''mens rea'' for culpable homicide is present, or the circumstances in which death was caused make it culpable homicide. Involuntary culpable homicide may arise in the context of an unlawful act or a lawful act. The ''mens rea'' requirement is different in each case.

Singapore

"Culpable homicide" is: Whoever causes death by doing an act with the intention of causing death, or with the intention of causing such bodily injury as is likely to cause death, or with the knowledge that he is likely by such act to cause death, commits the offence of culpable homicide.

Examples

* Person ''A'' lays sticks and turf over a pit, with the intention of thereby causing death, or with the knowledge that death is likely to be thereby caused. Person ''Z'', believing the ground to be firm, treads on it, falls in and is killed. ''A'' has committed the offence of culpable homicide. * ''A'' knows ''Z'' to be behind a bush. ''B'' does not know it. ''A'', intending to cause, or knowing it to be likely to cause ''Z''’s death, induces ''B'' to fire at the bush. ''B'' fires and kills ''Z''. Here ''B'' may be guilty of no offence; but ''A'' has committed the offence of culpable homicide.

South Africa

"Culpable homicide" has been defined (in South African law) simply as "the unlawful negligent killing of a human being", the rough equivalent of

involuntary manslaughter Manslaughter is a common law legal term for homicide considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is sometimes said to have first been made by the ancient Athenian lawmaker Draco in the 7th ce ...

in Anglo-American law.S v. Naidoo and Others
, Supreme Court of Appeal of South Africa, Case 321/2001

References

Footnotes

Notations

Strathclyde University Scots law course

{{DEFAULTSORT:Culpable Homicide Law of Canada Criminal law legal terminology Scottish criminal law Law of South Africa