Criminal – Reading Notes
Actus reus
- May involve:
o Act/omission – conduct crimes
o Certain consequences being caused – result crimes
o Existence of surrounding circumstances – state of affairs crimes
- General rule: no liability for an omission to act
o Exceptions: statutory duty, contractual duty, special relationship, voluntary
assumption of care, duty to avert a danger created
- Causation:
o Must be proved as part of AR of result crimes
o Factual causation – but for
o Legal causation – more than a minimal cause of the result
Operating and substantial cause of the outcome
o Novus actus interveniens
Actual reus will not be established
E.g. voluntary act by 3rd party,
unforeseeable escape,
negligent medical treatment was the ‘so independent of the def’s act’
and ‘so potent in causing death’ that the contribution made by the
def was rendered insignificant, and
events that are not reasonably foreseeable
e.g. unforeseeable and extraordinary natural event
o Eggshell/thin skull rule – def must ‘take victim as they found them’
AR and MR for common offences
To revise further
Burden of proof rules
Actus reus
- May involve:
o Act/omission – conduct crimes
o Certain consequences being caused – result crimes
o Existence of surrounding circumstances – state of affairs crimes
- General rule: no liability for an omission to act
o Exceptions: statutory duty, contractual duty, special relationship, voluntary
assumption of care, duty to avert a danger created
- Causation:
o Must be proved as part of AR of result crimes
o Factual causation – but for
o Legal causation – more than a minimal cause of the result
Operating and substantial cause of the outcome
o Novus actus interveniens
Actual reus will not be established
E.g. voluntary act by 3rd party,
unforeseeable escape,
negligent medical treatment was the ‘so independent of the def’s act’
and ‘so potent in causing death’ that the contribution made by the
def was rendered insignificant, and
events that are not reasonably foreseeable
e.g. unforeseeable and extraordinary natural event
o Eggshell/thin skull rule – def must ‘take victim as they found them’
AR and MR for common offences
To revise further
Burden of proof rules
