This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. Learn more

GDL Law Notes GDL Criminal Law Notes

Intention Notes

Updated Intention Notes

GDL Criminal Law Notes

GDL Criminal Law

Approximately 551 pages

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

  1. An intention to kill (express malice) OR

  2. 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:

  1. death or serious harm was a virtual certainty as a result of the defendant’s action’ (Objective test), and that;

  2. 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.

More GDL Criminal Law Samples