Law Reform Essay
Write a critical analysis of the current law of the non fatal offences against the person act. Include in your analysis a discussion of what reforms may be desirable.
One criticism of the offence against the person act is that it uses archaic language and does not comply with modern day language as it uses words such as maliously and grevious. The word grevious should be replaced with the word serious and maliously, which was defined in R v Cunningham, should be replaced with the word intention and recklessness. This change should happen as the non fatal offences are badly defined, for example there is no clear statutory definition for assault or battery. Also the word wound means to break all the layers of skin to cause the victim to bleed so a defendant that causes a small cut can be charged with GBH instead of ABH because a wound is classed as GBH. The word inflict should be used instead of cause in respect of GBH, inflict has a less serious meaning than cause which has now been established in R v Burstow.
