Law and Fault
With reference to decided cases in any area(s) of law with which you are familiar, consider to what extent English law is concerned with the concept of fault in deciding issues of liability or guilt (30) In English civil and criminal law, liability is based on fault. Fault is therefore perhaps one of the most important concepts in law, as without it, it would be impossible for justice to be reached for the state, victim and wrongdoer. Fault determines the way the state will compensate the victim and punish the wrongdoer, and this essay will focus on the latter. The whole aim of criminal law is to punish those who have committed a crime against the state. The sanction imposed considers the sentencing aim and attempts to reflect society's revulsion at the crime. Fault is present if the appropriate actus reus and mens rea can be proved. A person cannot be found guilty unless both elements were present. The actus reus concerns all elements of the offence apart from the defendant's state of mind. This not only includes the prohibited physical act but also any omissions and causation issues. The actus reus must be committed voluntarily, as Professor Hart stated 'the principle that punishment should be restricted to those who have voluntarily broken the law ... is a requirement of justice'. Involuntary actions give way to the general defence of automatism, which concerns
There are four main ways, for judges to interpret Parliamentary legislation; they can use the literal rule, golden rule, mischief rule, or the purposive approach.
Lord Scarman stated in Magor and St Mellons v Newport Corporation (1950): "If Parliament says one thing and means another, it is not, under the historic principles of the common law, for the courts to correct it. The general principle must surely be acceptable in our society. We are to be governed not by Parliament's intentions but by Parliament's enactments". (a) With reference to the above source, explain the methods used by judges to interpret Parliamentary legislation. There are four main ways, for judges to interpret Parliamentary legislation; they can use the literal rule, golden rule, mischief rule, or the purposive approach. But on which, depends on the particular judge, as is shown in the text above. Lord Scarman states "If Parliament says one thing and means another, it is not, under the historic principles of the common law, for the courts to correct it" and "We are to be governed not by Parliament's intentions but by Parliament's enactments". This implies that he approves of the literal rule, and strongly disapproves of the others. The literal rule, as it suggests means that the judge will interpret the words of the act literally, even if the result is an unfair or absurd one. As Lord Scarman states in Magor and St Mellons v Newport Corporation [1950] in the text above "We are to be governed not by Parliament's intentions but by Parliament's enactments" this
Jury (Criminal & Civil Trials)
Jury Essay (a) Describe the role of Jury in Civil and Criminal trials. Juries have been used in our legal system for over 1000 years since the Magna Carta which recognized the right to trail by "the lawful judgment of his peers." Since 1215 juries became the usual method of trying criminal cases. The independence of the jury was recognized in Bushell's case (1670) when it was established that the judge could not challenge the decision made. A more modern day example demonstrating that judges must respect the independence of the Jury is R v McKenna (1960) where they threatened the jury that if they don't give their verdict within another 10 minutes they will be locked up for the whole night. Juries are used in both Criminal and Civil cases although the use of juries is very small. Juries are used in the Crown Court for criminal trials of indictment, High Court - Queen's Bench Division, County Court and in some cases the Coroners' Courts. Less than 1% of criminal cases are decided on by a jury this is because 97% of cases are dealt by the Magistrates' Court and from the cases that go to the Crown Court, about two out of three defendants plead Guilty. Juries are used in both criminal and civil cases and the law concerning juries is consolidated in the Juries Act 1974. A jury is defined as a body of persons convened by process of law to represent the public at a trial or
Discuss the extent to which discrimination is prohibited under English and Welsh law (25 marks)
Discuss the extent to which discrimination is prohibited under English and Welsh law (25 marks) Article 14 of the European convention on Human rights protects individuals from discrimination. Traditionally English law has intervened to control discrimination in a very limited way, it is initially applied only to the areas of race and sex and only in relation to discrimination for certain purposes. E.g. they targeted race discrimination after WW2 when we had significant immigration from the commonwealth. Whereas the coverage is much larger today and broadly apply to employment discrimination, housing, education and the provision of services. The English law previously provided no remedy against unjustifiable discrimination, therefore in Applin v Race Relations Board (1975) Lord Simon referred to the "unbridled capacity to discriminate" at common law. This was in line with the traditional civil liberties in Britain and the view that an individual could do anything that the law does not prohibit. Therefore if sexual discrimination were to be tackled legislation would have to be passed. The First but limited attempt to prevent racial discrimination was the Race Relations Act 1965 which was later followed by the Race Relations Act 1968 which had a wider scope and extended this prevention of discrimination in law into further areas. On the other hand in areas such as sex
Taking selected areas of the civil and or criminal law, evaluate whether sportsmen and women are treated differently from the general public in proceedings that have their origin on the field of play.
Sports Assignment Question 2 Taking selected areas of the civil and or criminal law, evaluate whether sportsmen and women are treated differently from the general public in proceedings that have their origin on the field of play. Answer Sport plays a major part in the culture of today's society. Many people spend considerable time in front of the television, in sports grounds and traveling all over the country to support their respective club whether it be football, rugby, cricket or netball etc. However whilst playing, spectating or just generally being involved in a sport, things can go wrong and this very often results in an action in the civil or criminal courts. Sporting incidents should be dealt with like any other civil or criminal action, however there is evidence this is not happening in many cases in both areas of law. There can be several areas of civil law where claims can be made. These are Negligence, occupier's liability, defamation, nuisance, trespass and animals. However not all these will need to be looked at, the main ones being Negligence and occupiers liability. It is in the area of negligence that I will look at the sporting cases and how they differ from non - sporting cases of civil wrongs. I will be looking at participators, clubs, referees and spectators. In the second section I will be looking at negligence and injuries in football and how
Stop, search and arrest
Assignment 1.1 By Roxanne Slevin ) The main piece of legislation regulating police powers is the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE). The act was passed due to the miscarriage of justice in 1980, when a man (Maxwell Confait) was murdered. He had been strangled to death with an electrical flex in a burning house. Three boys at the age of fourteen, fifteen and eighteen were charged with the murder; however, three years later they were released after the Fisher report concluded they had nothing to with the murder. In the case of Jack, there are many things to consider about the legality of the actions of the police. Code A Under section 1 of PACE, the police officer was legally allowed to search Jack as there was a reasonable suspicion; this was due to the fact that the patrol officer was looking for suspects that were vandalising bus shelters, and where jack was acting suspiciously this is therefore reasonable. On the other hand, if it had been on the basis of personal factors, this would have been seen as discrimination and therefore, would have been illegal. Before the search begun, the police officer would have had to indentify himself and the police station of where he/she is based and tell the person to be searched the grounds for the search. Plus, If the police officer is not in uniform, then the officer must provide documentary identification, under
Discuss the problem of causation in criminal law and what rules have evolved to deal with the problem.
Discuss the problem of causation in criminal law and what rules have evolved to deal with the problem. Causation in its basest terms is simply the remoteness of the act from the crime. This in itself has caused many problems with regard to legal argument and also subsequent loopholes that appeared within the criminal law. It has been established over many years and tried cases, that there must be a clear and unbroken link, or chain of events, that links the defendant to the criminal act. The first and most important point to be considered is "would the act have occurred anyway?" This is often referred to as the "but for" test. In simplest terms this means would the consequence of the defendants act have occurred in the same way at the same time 'but for' the defendants actions. If the answer to this question is 'Yes' then the defendant is not guilty of that crime, R. v. White (1910). However, he may still be guilty of a different crime as with White. One question that has to be considered when looking at the question of causation is 'did the defendant actually commit the act?' If a criminal gets an innocent party to carry out the act of theft, does this exonerate him from prosecution? Surely if there is no actus reus then there is no crime. However, in R. v. Manley (1844) the courts felt otherwise and that a person will be guilty of the act even if an innocent
'In general, the criminal law prohibits the doing of harm but does not impose criminal liability for omission to act' Asses the truth of this statement and the arguments used to justify it.
'In general, the criminal law prohibits the doing of harm but does not impose criminal liability for omission to act' Asses the truth of this statement and the arguments used to justify it. Criminal liability is rarely imposed for true omissions at common law, though there are situations where a non - lawyer would consider that there has been an omission but in law it will be treated as an act and liability will be imposed. There are also situations where the accused has a duty to act, and in these cases there may be liability for a true omission. Well it must be first being decided that whether in law they are dealing with an act or an omission. However, there are three situations where this question arises: continuing acts, supervening faults and euthanasia. The concept of continuing acts was used in Fragan V Metropolitan Police Commissioner (1969) to allow what seemed to be an omission to be treated as an act. The defendant was told by a police officer to park his car close to the kerb; he obeyed the order, but in doing so he accidentally drove his car on the constable's foot. The constable shouted, 'Get off, you are on my foot.' The defendant replied, 'Fuck you, you can wait', and turned off the ignition. He was convinced of assaulting the constable in the execution of his duty. This offence requires an act; an omission is not sufficient. The defendant appealed
"The Nedrick/Woolin direction on intention manages to produce a clear distinction between intention and recklessness - Explain and discuss.
"The Nedrick/Woolin direction on intention manages to produce a clear distinction between intention and recklessness. However, such clarity carries the price of both (a) not being able to convict people who ought to be regarded as having the culpability for murder and (b) unjust convictions for murder." Explain and discuss. Nedrick1 updated the law surrounding intention by constructing a model direction which states that a jury should be directed by the judge 'that they are not entitled to infer the necessary intention, unless they feel sure that death or serious bodily harm was a virtual certainty (barring some unforeseen intervention) as a result of the defendant's actions and that the defendant realised that such was the case'2 Woollin3 extended the verdict given in Nedrick after the 'entitled to infer' intention on the part of the jury was updated to 'entitled to find' by the judges in the Woollin case. Woollin upheld Nedrick's test after the House of Lords stated that the trial judge enlarged the scope of the mental element required for murder and had misdirected the jury. The trial judge told the jury that a 'substantial risk' as to the consequences was only required to infer intention, but the House of Lords declared that the consequences have to be (a) virtually certain and (b) known to be of virtual certainty by the defendant for a conviction of murder to be
Describing the Rules and Aids to Statute interpretation. Including Advantages and Disadvantages.
Briefly describe the aids to interpretation used by judges. There are two types of aids that judges can use to interpret statutes, these are Intrinsic and Extrinsic. Intrinsic Aids are connected to the wording and/or punctuation within the Act itself. If using the Intrinsic Aid to interpret an Act of Parliament they will either examine the statute as a whole or study the relevant parts to see if they can define the overall purpose of the legislation. They may find that an interpretation of a certain section of the legislation would lead to an absurd result when another section is also taken into account. All legislations have both a shortened title and a long title. With Intrinsic Aids, they need to look at both to help resolve doubt. The long title can be examined as part of the whole context. Said by Lord Simon in the case: The Black-Clawson 1975 the long title should be read as part of the context 'as the plainest of all the guides to the general objectives of a statute'. Furthermore, headings, side notes and punctuation are important as it may help the judges clarify some points of the whole Act. Preambles can also be important when considering the wording etc within an Act as they will generalise the mischief to be amended and the scope of it. Extrinsic Aids, on the other hand, deal with external matters, outside of the legislation, to help explain the meaning and
