Criminal Law: Malice Aforethought
MALICE AFORETHOUGHT (INTENTION)[pic]
READING: Dine and Gobert, Cases and Materials, pp.234-235 AND 124-134.
Read in full the following cases: R v Moloney [1985] 1 AC 905 House of Lords, R V Hancock and Shankland [1986] 1 AC 455 House of Lords, R v Nedrick [1986] 3 All ER 1 Court of Appeal*, R v Woollin [1997] Cr App R 97, Court of Appeal, Woollin [1998]3 W.L.R. 382 , House of Lords.*
Law Commission, Draft Criminal Code Bill.
G. Williams, ‘Oblique Intention’ [1987] CLJ 417.
Lord Goff, ‘The Mental element in the crime of murder’ (1988) 104 LQR 30. A. Norrie, ‘Oblique intention and legal politics’ [1989] Crim LR 793.
R. Duff, ‘The politics of intention: a response to Norrie’ [1990] Crim LR 637.
J. C. Smith, ‘A note on intention’ [1990] Crim LR 85.* A. Norrie, 'After Woollin', [1999] Crim LR 582.
Official website documents regarding Judgements of the House of Lords, Consultation documents from the Lord Chancellor's department and information from the Home Office can be found at url http:// www.official-document.co.uk/menu/ukpinf.htm
The mental requirement for a charge of murder is that the accused has the intention to kill any person or an intention to cause grievous bodily harm to any person.
The concept of intention has a dual meaning in this area. It can mean that the accused desires the consequences of his conduct as where a person stabs another person to death with the intention that the deceased is killed. This type of intention is called specific intent It can also mean that the accused does not desire to kill but nevertheless the result of his or her conduct is that the a person is dead. This is called oblique intent. In this instance the courts have said that even though the accused did not intend to kill, ‘if at the material time the defendant recognised that death or serious harm would be virtually certain (barring unforseen intervention) to result from his or her voluntary act, then this is a fact from which a jury could infer that the
READING: Dine and Gobert, Cases and Materials, pp.234-235 AND 124-134.
Read in full the following cases: R v Moloney [1985] 1 AC 905 House of Lords, R V Hancock and Shankland [1986] 1 AC 455 House of Lords, R v Nedrick [1986] 3 All ER 1 Court of Appeal*, R v Woollin [1997] Cr App R 97, Court of Appeal, Woollin [1998]3 W.L.R. 382 , House of Lords.*
Law Commission, Draft Criminal Code Bill.
G. Williams, ‘Oblique Intention’ [1987] CLJ 417.
Lord Goff, ‘The Mental element in the crime of murder’ (1988) 104 LQR 30. A. Norrie, ‘Oblique intention and legal politics’ [1989] Crim LR 793.
R. Duff, ‘The politics of intention: a response to Norrie’ [1990] Crim LR 637.
J. C. Smith, ‘A note on intention’ [1990] Crim LR 85.* A. Norrie, 'After Woollin', [1999] Crim LR 582.
Official website documents regarding Judgements of the House of Lords, Consultation documents from the Lord Chancellor's department and information from the Home Office can be found at url http:// www.official-document.co.uk/menu/ukpinf.htm
The mental requirement for a charge of murder is that the accused has the intention to kill any person or an intention to cause grievous bodily harm to any person.
The concept of intention has a dual meaning in this area. It can mean that the accused desires the consequences of his conduct as where a person stabs another person to death with the intention that the deceased is killed. This type of intention is called specific intent It can also mean that the accused does not desire to kill but nevertheless the result of his or her conduct is that the a person is dead. This is called oblique intent. In this instance the courts have said that even though the accused did not intend to kill, ‘if at the material time the defendant recognised that death or serious harm would be virtually certain (barring unforseen intervention) to result from his or her voluntary act, then this is a fact from which a jury could infer that the