Responsibility & Causation
1. Introduction
1. Difference between legal responsibility and cause
2. Both intention and physical acts may be difficult to define
3. “Cause” may be difficult to define
1. Crossing desert hypothetical
2. Chain of causation
1. People held responsible for consequences of acts that they could not have
foreseen if their acts started an uninterrupted chain of events and "but for"
their act, the consequence would not have attained.
2. US v Hamilton (1960)
3. R v Smith (1959)
4. One can be responsible for actions that one does not cause
1. Felony Murder doctrine
1. Perpetrators of felonies held responsible for deaths that occur during some
felonies – even when their acts did not cause the death.
2. Why not simply increase penalties for primary crimes?
2. Strict liability
2. Mens Rea
1. Crime requires both guilty act (actus reus) and guilty mind (mens rea)
2. Accident with homicidal intent hypothetical
3. Subjective v Objective standards for determining mens rea
1. US v Short (1952) Assault with intent to commit rape
2. DPP v Morgan (1975) Rape
3. DPP v Smith (1961) Mens rea for murder
3. Legal Defenses
1. Necessity
1. Narrowly defined
2. R v Dudley & Stephans (1884)
3. US v Holmes (1842)
4. Why? What does the law hope to accomplish with this rule?
2. Duress
1. Narrowly defined
2. Abott v R
3. State v St. Clair
4. Milgram experiment
5. What does the law hope to accomplish with this rule?
3. Provocation
1. Maher v People (1862)
4. Intoxication
1. “Transferred intent”
2. AG for N.Ire. v Gallagher
3. Roberts v People
5. Self Defense
1. General doctrine
2. Application of general doctrine makes BWS defense unsuccessful in most cases.
3. Are battered women insane?
4. Why is this rule used?