Preview

Mr Guzha

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
538 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Mr Guzha
The current difficulties surrounding omissions is the actus reus of a crime are unavoidable but need to be resolved if the modern law is be to fair.
The view that ‘The current difficulties surrounding omissions is the actus reus of a crime are unavoidable but need to be resolved if the modern law is to be fair’ is very accurate as the law is outdated and they are difficulties surrounding omissions, reforms are needed.

Actus reus is the physical element of a crime .It can be the physical element of a crime. It can be an act or a failure to act (an omission) or a state of affairs. In most cases the actus reus will be something the defendant does, but there are situations in which failure to act is sufficient for the actus reus. These are set out at section 2.2 ‘ state of affairs’ cases are very rare.

Voluntary nature of actus reus , The act or omission must be voluntary on the part of the defendant, if the defendant has no control over his actions the n he has not committed the actus reus. InHill v B axtor 19 the court gave examples of where a driver of a vehicle could not be said to be to doing the act of driving voluntarily. These included where a driver lost control of his vehicle because he was stung a swarm of bees, or if he was struck on the head by a stone or had a heart attack while driving. Other examples of an involuntary act include where the defendant hits another person because of a reflex action or a muscle spasm. If another is where one person pushes a second person, causing them to harm into third person. In this situation the act of second person who has been pushed is involuntary. Even though has hit the third person, he has not committed the actus reus for any assault offence. This happened in the case of Mitchell 1983 ( see section 8.1.3) of course, the original ‘pusher’ can be liable.
Omissions as actus reus , the normal rule is that an omission cannot make a person guilty of an offence. This was explained by Stephen j, a 19th- century

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    Omission – An Omission is where the Actus Reus is in the form of not doing something, another term is negligence.…

    • 1126 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    The Regina Knight Case

    • 1974 Words
    • 8 Pages

    In order for a trial to be brought, the police and prosecutors might be able to prove that the elements of the particular offence are present. In this criminal case both Actus reus, Mens rea as well causation was clearly shown through the behavior of Katherine Knight.…

    • 1974 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    HSC Legal Studies

    • 315 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Actus reus: refers to the actions (or in rare cases the failure to act/the omission) of the accused; that is that the accused actually did the act…

    • 315 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    2. Involuntary acts – where person cannot control their actions, this is an involuntary act…

    • 991 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    An omission can amount to the Actus Reus of a crime, however, the general rule regarding omissions is that there is no liability for a failure to act. For example if you see a person drowning you have no obligation to help them. This could be seen as a gap in the law therefore it could said that this is a reason that English Criminal law should impose a duty on general citizens to assist a person in peril. Although this is the general rule there are exceptions. The first exception is when there is a statutory duty to act for example stopping at a red light under the Road Traffic Act 1988. Another example is where there is a contractual duty to act. This where it states in a defendants employment contract that they must act. A case example would be in R v Pitwood where the defendant failed to lower the level crossing barrier which resulted in the victim dying. The defendant was found guilty of manslaughter as he had breached his contractual duty. Finally the third exception is when the duty is imposed by law. There are three situations in which this may happen; failing to rectify a dangerous situation as in R v Miller, when there has been a voluntary acceptance of a duty as in Dobinson v Stone and finally misconduct in a public office as in R v…

    • 1327 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    HSC PREP

    • 5612 Words
    • 23 Pages

    Actus Reus: A Latin term, which means the guilty act. Actus Reus means that there must be an action or physical movement.…

    • 5612 Words
    • 23 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Australian Criminal Law

    • 788 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The codification of the Criminal Code has marked a watershed on Australian legal jurisprudence. In this essay I will discuss the problems that may occur when interpreting the Criminal Code (The Code), the creation of uniformity and the also accessibility that the Code creates.…

    • 788 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Stand Your Ground

    • 2777 Words
    • 12 Pages

    Westervelt, Saundra; Humphrys, John (2001, June 1). Wrongly Convicted: Perspectives on Failed Justice (Critical Issues in Crime and Society). Retrieved From:…

    • 2777 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    For most crimes we will require proof of two different elements and they are Mens Rea and Actus Reus. To constitute criminal behaviour, the Actus Reus and Mens Rea must occur simultaneously. For example, suppose Jack Barrat shoots Harry Sparrow with the intention to kill him, but misses completely. Barrat later accidentally runs over Sparrow, resulting in Sparrow’s death. Barrat is not guilty of murder.…

    • 65 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Evidence Amendment (Evidence of silence) Act 2013 has outlined the extent to which the law balances the rights of suspects and victims in the criminal investigation process. Essentially, the Act allows an unfavourable inference to be drawn on the suspects if they fail to mention something they will later rely on in the proceedings. Thus, the suspect’s right on silence is reduced. In the case R v Swaffield (1998), the suspect was charged with three criminal offences and remained silent to police questions after unknowingly confessing to a police officer who recorded him without his knowledge or consent. Later on, the recorded ‘involuntary’ confession was presented to the courts of Australia where the case was appealed to the High Court. The High Court of Australia addressed the issue in ‘context of voluntary confessions and the degree to which they are admissible in respect of voluntariness, unfairness and public policy considerations.’ In this situation, the procedural fairness has been breached where the police failed to present voluntarily confession evidence without limiting the right on silence of the offender. However, the High Court judges applied ‘discretion to exclude the evidence for unfairness’. This precedential case stated that “the purpose of that discretion is the protection of the rights and privileges of the accused”, supported by the Sydney Morning Herald’s article ‘Protecting the rule of law’ that “the right to silence is an important protection for people who feel their poorly articulated explanations would be twisted by investigators”. Therefore, it can be argued that justice was achieved to a certain extent in balancing the rights of suspects since the High Court established a narrow operation of the discretion for the purpose of maintaining the accused’s rights in respect to voluntary confession and procedural…

    • 922 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Martin Partington, when writing about the Criminal cases Review Commission, declared that “One of the most serious challenges facing the criminal justice system is ensuring that miscarriages of justice do not occur”, (Partington, Introduction to the English Legal System, Oxford University Press, 2012/13 (7th ed.) at page 135.…

    • 1241 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    33. The facts that constitute inadmissibility under sections 34 to 37 include facts arising from omissions and, unless otherwise provided, include facts for which there are reasonable grounds to believe that they have occurred, are occurring or may occur.…

    • 1839 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Actus Reus is a voluntary deliberate act, all elements of a crime, excluding the mental element; it also includes the conduct, or result of consequence, a state of affairs. This happens where can be guilty, it is voluntary deliberate of the defendant (Hill v Baxter 1958) offences against the person act in s20.…

    • 1282 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Omissions essay

    • 1360 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The actus reus of a crime is the physical element and normally requires a positive, voluntary act.…

    • 1360 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Criminal Law Omissions

    • 1468 Words
    • 6 Pages

    It is impossible to derive from statutes a general rule that a person will not be liable for simply failing to act. This is because, “in contrast to the position at common law, many statutes make it a specific offence to omit to do something”. Omissions are criminalized in both relatively minor offences such as failing to wear a seatbelt, and major offences such as wilfully neglecting a child in a manner likely to cause injury. These examples show that there is no criterion that connects and distinguishes the statutes which criminalize omissions from those which criminalise acts. In fact, as Ashworth notes, clauses describing liability for omissions, rather than acts, have been assigned to legislation somewhat randomly: “it is often a technicality of drafting as to whether an offence is framed in terms of omission or commission”. Some may argue that the fact that there is no common factor linking all statues which impose liability on omissions, is what makes each of them exceptional.…

    • 1468 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays