Criminal 3 - mens rea Practice Questions And Answers Graded A+.

Functions of MR(5) - correct answer 1. Chan and Simester point to four functions of mens rea 2. Fault 3. Identifying the wrong 4. Fair warning 5. Limiting criminalisation Fault and MR (3) - correct answer 1. actus non facit reum nisi mens sit rea, in the maxim of Lord Coke 2. Lord Hailsham translated this as: 'An act does not make a man guilty of a crime, unless his mind be also guilty' in Haughton v Smith 3. Correspondence Fault and fair warning - correct answer For Hart, this was the essential function of mens rea How much fault needed? (2) - correct answer 1. the 'thin ice principle', as Ashworth calls it; those that sail too close to the wind may be caught out 2. Gardner: 'MR principle' - cannot commit wrongs without awareness of wrongfulness of what one is doing Four main types of MR - correct answer Intention, knowledge, recklessness, negligence Stark on MR (2) - correct answer 1. Need clarity and definitions 2. Courts repeatedly restrict definitions of MR to particular offences - as in r V Woollin and R v G Motive (3) - correct answer 1. Irrelevant 2. Norrie: otherwise the courts would have to consider what is a good reason to break the law 3. R v Chandler - intending to protect state no excuse for crime Effect of intention - correct answer Horder describes intention as more than a mere fault indicator; it changes the normative nature of conduct Definition of intention (2) - correct answer 1. As Lord Bridge remarked in R v Moloney, the judge should not confuse the jury; it should be down to their good sense what intent means. 2. Glanville Williams remarks it to be 'lamentable' that English law has struggled to define such a basic concept after nearly a thousand years of legal development Two forms of intention - correct answer Direct intention and indirect / oblique intention Academic definition of direct intention - correct answer Duff: test of failure, if it had not come about would the defendant had seen their action as a failure Academic example considering intention - correct answer Glanville Williams' insurance bomber Another author on defining intention - correct answer Norrie:law is continually undermined by its failure to adopt consistent definitions Initial position on intention - correct answer Shaw v DPP: objective, D intends the reasonably foreseeable consequences of their actions Middling position on intention (8) - correct answer 1. Hyam v DPP 2. Bare majority of lords: a probable consequence is intended 3. But disagreement as to highly probable, probable, or serious risk 4. Lord Hailsham LC (dissenting): intention is to be distinguished from desire and foresight 5. Hailsham: Knowledg and foresight only raised an inference of intention 6. But he appeared to equate knowledge of a serious risk with intention 7. Viscount Dilhorne: a known about highly probable consequence was intended - overlap with recklessness 8. On the facts, burned down house, did not intend to kill, conviction maintained Penultimate intention (9) - correct answer 1. R v Moloney 2. Shot step-father whom he had loved 3. HoL: Hyam had caused too much confusion 4. Lord Bridge: side-effects were only intended of morally certain and known to be so, 'little short of overwhelming' 5. The harm had to be a natural consequence and the defendant had to know that 6. This appears more relaxed that deliberate exposure to serious risk in Hyam 7. Foresight only a matter of evidence 8. 'clarity and simplicity' - intention left to jury 9. Golden Rule: only in rare cases, where indirect intent arises, ask 2 questions - and that raised the inference of intent Nuancing Moloney (3) - correct answer 1. R v Hancock and Shanckland 2 Miners and bridges, jury did not understand Moloney guidelines 3 Lord Scarman criticised Moloney guidelines and felt reference to probability needed when extending intention to consequences Law Com on indirect intent - correct answer Intended virtually certain consequences - otherwise recklessness Lord Hailsham on indirect intent (3) - correct answer 1. Hyman: foresight was not intention 2. But intention included 'inseparable consequences' 3. So in bomber, passenger deaths were a 'moral certainty' Hyam and Moloney (3) - correct answer 1. Hyam, Hailsham: inseparable consequences 2. Moloney, Bridge: natural consequences 3. These could be questions of evidence of intention oroblique intention Evidence and intention authority (3) - correct answer 1. Lord Lane CJ, R v Nedrick 2. If a consequence is 'virtually certain', evidence may easily be inferred 3. Norrie: allows moral substance as substitute for intention Current authority on intention (6) - correct answer 1. R v Woollin 2. D threw baby against wall, conviction quashed 3. Lord Steyn: if 'virtually certain' and known to be so, could find intention, as with Nedrick 4. Lord Steyn: murder in 'disarray' 5. Took up Nedrick test 6. Note - find not infer, Lord Hope: make as simple as possible Do authorities allow the finding or inference of intention? (5) - correct answer 1. R v Matthews and Alleyne 2. Court: Woollin was talking about inference, not substantive law 3. But it was an irresistible evidence 4. Rix LJ: with virtual certainty there is little to choose between evidence and substantive law 5. Note - allowing an inference is important because it provides room for avoiding an automatic conviction The law beyond murder (4) - correct answer 1. Woollin made clear it was just referring to murder 2. Nevertheless, it seems the best guidance 3. Heavily criticised by Stark 4. Tadros: different definitions for different offences