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.

“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
