The rules and principles of causation not only provide fair practical solutions to the problems of criminal liability but also are founded on sound moral principles. Discuss this statement.

Authors Avatar
“The rules and principles of causation not only provide fair practical solutions to the problems of criminal liability but also are founded on sound moral principles.” Discuss this statement. When deciding whether a defendant is guilty of an offence the court will look to see if the defendant was the cause of the consequence. The three aspects the prosecution must prove are; that the defendant was the factual cause, the legal cause and that there were no intervening acts which broke the chain of causation.                                                        In order to establish whether the defendant’s actions were the factual cause, the court will decide whether the consequence would not have happened but for the defendant’s conduct. This is referred to as the ‘but for’ test and was used in R V Pagett 1983 to show that the defendant’s girlfriend would not have died but for the fact he held her  hostage as a human shield against police gunfire. The ‘but for’ test can also prove a defendant not guilty of a criminal offence, such as the case of R V White. In this case the defendant put cyanide in his mother’s drink, but she died before drinking it due to a heart attack. so the defendants actions were deemed as not the factual cause of his mother’s death. The ‘but for’ test complies with the moral principles of society as we would not deem a
Join now!
person a criminal if they have not caused the consequence, as there is no connection between the defendant and the consequence.                                                                                        Once a defendant has been proved to be the factual cause, the court must then establish whether the defendant’s actions were the legal cause. Often there is more than act contributing to the consequence, and some of which may be acts of people other than the defendant. Legal causation can be proven if it is decided that the defendant’s actions were more than a minimal cause, and need not be a substantial cause of the consequence. In the case ...

This is a preview of the whole essay