UK Criminal Law - Involuntary Manslaughter Study Guide

A-
Level
Law:
Crimi
nal
Law
(01)


Topic
3:
Fatal
Offen
Name:
Teacher:
ces
3)

, Involuntary
Manslaughter

1) Unlawful Act Manslaughter

This is also known as constructive manslaughter.

Liability for death is built up, or constructed, from several different elements which
ultimately caused the victim(s) death. This means that a D can be guilty of UAM even
though he did not realise that death or injury might occur.


The elements that must be proven for a conviction of UAM are:




a) The D must do an unlawful act
b) That act must be dangerous on an objective test
c) The act must cause the death
d) The D must have the required mens rea for the unlawful
act




Unlawful Act


The Vs death must be caused by an unlawful act. The unlawful act must be a criminal
offence. A civil wrong (tort) is not enough:


Franklin (1883)

The D took a box from another man’s stall on Brighton Pier and threw it into
the sea. The box struck and killed the victim who was swimming at the time.
Not Guilty.

A civil wrong is not enough to create liability for unlawful act manslaughter, it must be a crime.




There must be a positive physical act. An omission cannot create liability for UAM.