Criminal Law (Offences against the person) - revision notes

Module 4 - Criminal Law (Offences against the person) Murder There are 3 types of homicide: * Murder - Direct intention - Indirect intention * Voluntary Manslaughter * Involuntary Manslaughter Murder It is a common law offence (not created by statute law) Defined by Coke: - "When a person of sound memory and of the age of discretion unlawfully kills any reasonable creature in being under the Queens peace with malice aforethought so that the victim dies within a year and a day." Sound memory - Sanity Age of discretion - 10 - 13 Doli Incapax (not an assumption since 98) 14 - 17 Young person 18 - 21 Young adult 21 + Full liability Law Reform Year and a Day Rule Act 1996 abolished the year and a day rule. AG (Ref No 3) 1994 - Pregnant woman was stabbed and the baby was damaged; born alive but then died from the initial stabbing R v Malcherek & Steel (1981) - Put victim in coma and on life support machine. Hospital turned off machine and victim died. Defence was that doctors had killed victim Court decided that death had already occurred at the time of coma (brain dead) and therefore the defendant was guilty. Malice Aforethought - MR - Can't use it because of Cunningham Murder is a result crime. AR = Death MR = Intention (Direct/Oblique intention to kill or cause GBH) R v Smith (1961) - Armed robbery. Police officer jumps on bonnet of car, gets thrown off

  • Word count: 15717
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: Law
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The Law Relating to Negotiable Instruments

INTRODUCTION As commerce and trade developed, people moved beyond exclusive reliance on barter to the use of money and then to the use of substitutes for money. The term negotiable instrument encompasses such substitutes in common use today as checks, promissory notes, and certificates of deposit. History discloses that every civilization that engaged to an appreciable extent in commerce used some form of negotiable instrument. Probably the oldest negotiable instrument used in the carrying on of trade is the promissory note. Archaeologists found a promissory note made payable to bearer that dated from about 2100 BC. The merchants of Europe used negotiable instrument, which under the law merchant was negotiable in the 13th and 14th centuries. Negotiable instrument does not appear to have been used in England until about 1600 AD. This paper tries to outline and discuss the body of law that governs negotiable instrument. Of particular interest are those kinds of negotiable instrument having the attribute of negotiability-that is, they generally can be transferred from party to party and accepted as a substitute for money. This paper also discusses about dishonor of a negotiable instrument, Hundis and in the later part, the legal relationship between bankers and customers. CHAPTER: 1 NEGOTIABLE INSTRUMENTS The law relating to "negotiable instruments" is contained in the

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: Law
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Using actual situations describe the elements of actus

Using actual situations describe the elements of actus reus and mens rea in criminal law. Comment on the importance of those two elements in relation to murder and manslaughter. Criminal Law, branch of law that defines crimes and fixes punishments for them. Also included in criminal law are rules and procedures for preventing and investigating crimes and prosecuting criminals, as well as the regulations governing the constitution of courts, the conduct of trials, the organization of police forces, and the administration of penal institutions. In general, the criminal law of most modern societies classifies crimes as offences against the safety of the society; offences against the administration of justice; offences against the public welfare; offences against property; and offences threatening the lives or safety of people. In England and Wales criminal trials are heard in dedicated courts: the magistrates' court for less serious offences, and the Crown Court for all other offences. Reform of the law is under continuous examination by the Criminal Law Revision Committee, which reports to the Lord Chancellor (the head of the judiciary). The committee recently proposed a draft criminal code to unify all criminal offences in one format, but this has not yet been taken up by the government or Parliament. Criminal Procedure, legal system for determining the guilt or innocence of

  • Word count: 12307
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: Law
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Worlds Apart: Orientalism, Antifeminism, and Heresy in Chaucer's Man of Law's Tale

Worlds Apart: Orientalism, Antifeminism, and Heresy in Chaucer's Man of Law's Tale Although the Man of Law's Tale comes fifth in the order of the Canterbury Tales in all but one manuscript, readers often detect something initiatory about this performance. The Host's astronomical calculation of date and time in the Introduction to the tale sounds like a "new beginning" to Derek Pearsall, and Cooper speculates that the Introduction, which implies that the story-telling has not yet begun, may once have stood at the head of all the tales, following the General Prologue. Cooper also finds that the lawyer's tale of Custance, the Christian missionary bride, "certainly makes a new start": after the ever more sexually active women of the first fragment comes the saintly Emperor's daughter ... [;] after the vagaries of Fortune and the frenzied human disorder of the preceding tales comes a story that insists throughout on the providential control of events. V. A. Kolve has also written on the initiatory nature of the Man of Law's tale, arguing, as does Cooper, that it provides the overall work "a new beginning": in contrast to the secular romance and bawdy fabliaux that constitute the first four tales told by the Knight, Miller, Reeve, and Cook, the austere story of Custance's trials and tribulations reorients the direction of the Canterbury Tales, heading it for the first time

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: Law
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Law - Resulting trusts

Peter Gibson L.J. began his judgment in Drake v Whipp: "Yet again this court is asked to rule on a dispute between a man and a woman, who cohabited but were not married to each other, as to their respective beneficial interests in a property which they purchased to be their home but which was put into the man's name only. The usual lengthy litany of authorities as well as more recent additions have been recited to us and, as is notorious, it is not easy to reconcile every judicial utterance in this well-travelled area of the law." The above indicates just how frustrated the courts have become with the area of resulting trusts. The years when men did the work and women stayed home and cooked have gone but yet the law still has not changed, women now considered equal as seen in Article 5 Protocol 7 of the European Convention on Human Rights which requiring the law to treat husband and wife equally. This paper will consider the judgments made and reform offered and whether the current general law is adequate. In Re Vandervells Trust No 21 Megarry J. described what a presumed resulting trust was: "The first class of case is where the transfer to B is not made on any trust ... there is a rebuttable presumption that B holds on resulting trust for A. The question is not one of the automatic consequences of a dispositive failure by A, but one of presumption: the property has been

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  • Subject: Law
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abortion research

Abortion and Ethics Ethics of Abortion: Is it Moral or Immoral to Have an Abortion? Abortion is a Serious Ethical Issue: Usually debates about abortion focus on politics and the law: should abortion be outlawed and treated like the murder of a human person, or remain a legal choice available to all women? Behind the debates are more fundamental ethical questions which aren't always given the specific attention they deserve. Some believe that the law shouldn't legislate morality, but all good law is based upon moral values. A failure to openly discuss those values can obscure important discussions. Is the Fetus a Person with Rights?: Much debate about the legality of abortion involves debating the legal status of the fetus. If the fetus is a person, anti-choice activists argue, then abortion is murder and should be illegal. Even if the fetus is a person, though, abortion may justified as necessary to women's bodily autonomy - but that wouldn't mean that abortion is automatically ethical. Perhaps the state can't force women to carry pregnancies to term, but it could argue that it is the most ethical choice. Does the Woman have Ethical Obligations to the Fetus?: If a woman consented to sex and/or didn't properly use contraception, then she knew that pregnancy might result. Being pregnant means having a new life growing inside. Whether the fetus is a person or not, and

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: Law
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Study the concept of Reasonable man and reasonability in tort law.

PROJECT ASSIGNMENT TORTS-1 THE CONCEPT OF REASONABLE MAN Submitted by PRANEETH RAMANAVARAPU VARUNADITYA CHIRUMAMILLA I.D NO- 1352 I.D. NO- 1376 1ST YEAR 1ST TRIMISTER DATE OF SUBMISSION- 6TH SEPTEMBER NATIONAL LAW SCHOOL OF INDIA UNIVERSITY NAGARBHAVI, BANGALORE TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CASES...............................................................................3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ...............................................................4 INTRODUCTION................................................................................5 CHAPTER1.........................................................................................6 CHAPTER 2.......................................................................................9 CHAPTER 3........................................................................................16 CONCLUSION ....................................................................................20 BILBIOGRAPHY..................................................................................21 TABLE OF CASES ENGLISH CASES . Blythe v Birmingham (1856) 11 Exch 781 at 784 2. Bolam v Friern [1957] 2 ALL E.R. 118 3. Brown v Rolls Royce[1960] 1 All E.R. 577. 4. Caminer v Northern [1962] 2 ALL E.R. 978. 5. Carmarthenshire county council v lewis[1991] AC 549, HL 6. Cavanagh v Ulster Weaving Co

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: Law
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Is there a tort of invasion of privacy?

CONFIDENCEAND PRIVACY (1) Is there a tort of invasion of privacy? It has often been said that the English law does not recognise a right to privacy 'as such'.1 It has been widely agreed that privacy rights might find incidental protection by causes of action designed to protect other interests, but there is no distinct cause of action for 'invasion of privacy'.2 This point was graphically illustrated in the case of Kaye v Robertson.3 This case involved a well known actor who had undergone extensive surgery and was in hospital when he was photographed and allegedly interviewed by a tabloid newspaper. The journalist and the photographer for the newspaper ignored notices asking visitors to ask permission from a member of staff before visiting patients. The claimant relied on causes of action in libel, trespass to the person, passing-off and malicious falsehood. It was accepted by the claimant's lawyers that his rights could not be protected by an action for breach of privacy. This case is frequently cited in support of the proposition that the English law does not recognise a tort of privacy;4 however it has also been pointed out5 that the action was not brought in confidence, and no cases derived from the law of confidence were cited in court.6 Although the Court of appeal refused his application, it noted that the case: "...highlighted, yet again, the failure of both the

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: Law
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Justices of the Peace - Magistrates Courts

MAGISTRATES Some 30 000 Justices of the Peace sit in a thousand or so Magistrates' Courts all over the country, and nearly 300 in Bristol alone. They are appointed by the Lord Chancellor on the recommendation of local committees consisting largely of existing magistrates. This process gives rise to the criticism - perhaps justified - that the selection procedures tend to favour the appointment of new magistrates whose views are compatible with existing members'. Magistrates must be aged between 27 and 65 at the time of appointment (though very few in fact are under 40); they must be British, Irish or Commonwealth citizens; they must be in good health (sufficient to enable them to do the job); and they must live within or close to the area served by the court to which they are appointed. They must have satisfactory hearing, but in 1998 the Lord Chancellor appointed the first blind magistrate for over 50 years, and several other blind people have been appointed subsequently. According to an official handout from the Lord Chancellor's Department, the key qualities sought in those applying to be magistrates are as follows: Good character: Personal integrity - respect and trust of others - respect for confidences - absence of any matter which might bring them or the Magistracy into disrepute - willingness to be circumspect in private, working and public life. Understanding and

  • Word count: 5953
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: Law
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Explain the need for discipline in at least two public services. Analyse the role of public service. Evaluate the application of the role of discipline in the public services."

Task 1: "Explain the need for discipline in at least two public services. Analyse the role of public service. Evaluate the application of the role of discipline in the public services." Discipline: In Debra Gray's book: BTEC National Public Service (uniformed) Book 1: discipline is described as obedience to authority. Discipline is necessary in all of the Public Services as it moulds people's behaviour. It can do this in many ways such as causing fear of punishment, offering material rewards, or by offering opportunities if promotion. The main internet source of definitions I found was www.wikipedia.co.uk here I found definitions such as: ? A system of rules of conduct or method of practice; "he quickly learned the discipline of prison routine"; "for such a plan to work requires discipline"; ? the trait of being well behaved; "he insisted on discipline among the troops" ? the act of punishing; "the offenders deserved the harsh discipline they received" The dictionary definition of discipline is: control or order exercised over people or animals; system of rules for this; training or a way of life aimed at self control or conformity; branch of learning; punishment. Discipline can be used as any of the following: Deterrent: to stop people from doing something you don't want them to. For example to stop people from being late, if they know that disciplinary action

  • Word count: 5593
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: Law
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