The emphasis placed by the Criminal law on the need for a free and deliberate intervention of a third party unconnected to the defendant’s conduct to introduce a novus actus interveniens was affirmed by the House Lords in the case of Kennedy 2008. Topics: Causation, Common Law, Crime, Criminal Law, Ethical Principles, Jurisprudence, Mens Rea Texas Supreme Court Cases Research When the supreme court makes a decision on a controversial court case, a long line of ramifications are going to follow no matter what political landscape an individual is in. The application of the law in these cases is incoherent and from Kennedy (No1) to Kennedy (No2) we have heard four different justifications all completely flawed. Criminal Responsibility and Causation There are many ways that causation is implicated in criminal cases. But difficulties arise when there is something that happened after the defendant’s conduct, i.e. [22], Thirlaway and James were of the view that the decision in Kennedy No2 did not attract a great deal of the academic support. Norrie was of the view that what might be apposite for breaking the chain of causation in such case which is necessary in order to distinguish the religious from the spiteful victim was not provided by the law commission. The English Court of Appeal held that the trial judge’s direction to the jury that if the appellant knew “it was highly probable that the act would result in serious bodily injury to somebody inside the house, even though he did not desire it …… he is guilty of murder” was wrong as that equated foresight with intent because, citing R v Moloney, “foresight of consequences, as an element bearing on the issue of intention in murder … belongs, not to the substantive law, but to the law of evidence”. In Kennedy (No. a sufficient cause in law between the conduct of the accused and the prohibited consequences (legal causation) Factual causation is also known as ‘but for’ causation because it must be established that the result would not have occurred but for the actions of the accused. 44 are worth noting: “It follows that the Nedrick and Woollin test has in principle general applicability to all offences of specific intent, though it may well be that it will be relatively few cases where the test is of any practical benefit.  Those cases will mostly arise where the offence charged was not the primary purpose of the defendant.”. [44], Reed was of the view that ‘consistency and legal principle does not permit us to create an exception to the general principles of causation to take care of the particular problem thrown by the case’. Williams asserted that what a person does is his own responsibility and is not regarded as having been caused by other people. As a result, it was held that the case of R v Rogers [32] had been wrongly decided. This is not an example of the work produced by our Law Essay Writing Service. VAT Registration No: 842417633. You can view samples of our professional work here. For this freedom to be meaningful, people must have the right to make choices that accord with their own values regardless of how unwise or foolish those choices may appear to others.”[2] R v Blaue[3], a famous causation case in criminal law, brings to foreground a thought-provoking debate about whether an individual’s religious beliefs and other psychological values could be included in the ‘thin skull’ rule … [26], Having analyzed and found unquestionable the elements of the s. 23 [27] and manslaughter offences, the House of Lords in Kennedy No2 went on to consider principles of causation in depth and agreed (at [14]) that the ‘free, deliberate and informed intervention of a second person, who intends to exploit the situation created by the first, but is not acting in concert with him, is normally held to relieve the first actor of criminal responsibility [28]. You can view samples of our professional work here. VAT Registration No: 842417633. Causation in criminal liability is divided into factual causation and legal causation. *You can also browse our support articles here >. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not reflect the views of LawTeacher.net. Where the result is attributable to a novus actus, D is relieved of the liability for that result and his conduct is no longer seen as a significant and operating cause. Ormerod and Forston describe the court’s approach as a ‘controversial … unworkable approach to liability based on D’s “joint participation”, criticizing not only the interpretation of the words ‘any other person’ under s. 23 but also the reasoning behind the concepts of joint liability. In this section, we will look at cause-in-fact and legal causation and how they are both traditionally understood.Legal causation involves the use of legal principles to attribute responsibility to the factual causes of an injury and it is particularly helpful in resolving more complex types of cases. The case of Kennedy No2 was seen to be the leading case with regards to the causation principles in cases of supply drugs where the dealer supplies drug and after voluntary self injection by the victims, they die. This essay was produced by one of our professional writers as a learning aid to help you with your studies. English criminal law makes a distinction between conduct and result crimes. [23]. This document is an essay plan for the topic of causation in Criminal Law. 7. [43] Hughes was of the view that only one person can inject the drugs, so how then can a drug be jointly administered? “Causation” in Criminal Law is concerned with whether the defendant’s conduct contributed sufficiently to the prohibited consequence to justify the criminal liability, which would be assessed from two aspects, namely “factual” and “legal” causation. [19]. Looking for a flexible role? Copyright © 2003 - 2020 - LawTeacher is a trading name of All Answers Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales. Analyzing the previous case law briefly, the House of Lords were of the view that Cato [29] could be distinguished from Kennedy No1 on its facts as the Injection had been administered by the defendant. Where a man realises that it is for all practical purposes inevitable that his actions will result in death or serious harm, the inference may be irresistible that he intended that result, however little he may have desired or wished it to happen. 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