GDL Law Notes GDL Criminal Law Notes
A collection of the best GDL notes the director of Oxbridge Notes (an Oxford law graduate) could find after combing through applications from top students and carefully evaluating each on accuracy, formatting, logical structure, spelling/grammar, conciseness and "wow-factor". In short these are what we believe to be the strongest set of GDL notes available in the UK this year. This collection of GDL notes is fully updated for recent exams, also making them the most up-to-date GDL study materials ...
The following is a more accessible plain text extract of the PDF sample above, taken from our GDL Criminal Law Notes. Due to the challenges of extracting text from PDFs, it will have odd formatting:
Mens Rea for murder = MALICE AFORETHOUGHT
Misleading term: no requirement for malice and doesn’t need to be premeditated
Even if acting on compassionate terms there will be murder - Inglis (2011) – mercy killing is no defence in English law
An intention to kill (express malice) OR
An intention to cause GBH (implied malice) – R v Vickers
GBH has the meaning of really serious harm as defined in DPP v Smith and also Saunders
Types of Intention: Direct + Oblique
Direct Intent:
Where the consequence is what the defendant wants to happen – purpose/objective of him acting
Even if his chances of success are slim
Subjective test
The general rule
R v Maloney – Lord Bridge made it clear intention should be given its ordinary meaning – “desire”/”motive”
Where the aim/purpose is to commit the actus reus
Judges should refrain from giving further explanation as to the meaning of ‘intention’ (unless jury asks for it)
Oblique Intent:
Rare: where intent is the only form of mens rea (e.g. murder, s 18 GBH with intent) - not where recklessness is an alternative
Oblique intent is where the result is not the defendant’s purpose but a side effect that he accepts as an inevitable accompaniment to his direct intention
Debate over what is required to find oblique intent:
View that foresight of high probability could amount to intention - Hyam v DPP
But – in R v Maloney – foresight of probability could never amount to intention
Lord Bridge: ‘natural consequence’: but this term led to confusion
R v Nedrick – clearer test:
‘the jury are not entitled to infer the necessary intention, unless they feel sure that death or serious harm was a virtual certainty and that the defendant appreciated that was such the case’ – Lord Lane C.J.
This 2nd test was adopted by HL – R v Woolin – Lord Steyn - jury needs to feel sure that:
‘death or serious harm was a virtual certainty as a result of the defendant’s action’ (Objective test), and that;
‘the defendant appreciated that such was the case’ (Subjective test)
Intention or evidence of intention
Unclear if oblique intention is a definition of intention or whether it is merely evidence of intention
R v Maloney: Lord Bridge stated that such a state of mind could only be evidence of intention
R v Nedrick – bound by Maloney
Idea that foresight of virtual certainty could be evidence of intention w/o also being intention has been severely criticised
Draft Criminal Code: includes oblique intention in is definition of intention
R v Woolin:
Lord Steyn seemed to be treating foresight of virtual certainty as part of the definition of intention – ‘a result foreseen as virtually certain is an intended result’
Subtle change to Nedrick test: now jury should find intention rather than infer intention
But he didn’t...
Buy the full version of these notes or essay plans and more in our GDL Criminal Law Notes.
A collection of the best GDL notes the director of Oxbridge Notes (an Oxford law graduate) could find after combing through applications from top students and carefully evaluating each on accuracy, formatting, logical structure, spelling/grammar, conciseness and "wow-factor". In short these are what we believe to be the strongest set of GDL notes available in the UK this year. This collection of GDL notes is fully updated for recent exams, also making them the most up-to-date GDL study materials ...
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