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First Class Criminal Law Exam with Feedback
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  • Law LLB
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  • Law LLB

First Class Criminal Law Exam with one essays on the M'Naghten Rules and a problem question with regards to offences against the person including GBH, assault and constructive manslaughter. The grades and feedback for each question are at the end of the document.

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Document information

  • December 19, 2023
  • 12
  • 2022/2023
  • Exam (elaborations)
  • Questions & answers

Subjects

  • first class
  • criminal law
  • law
  • llb
  • essays
  • problem questions
  • insanity
  • gbh
  • manslaughter
  • assault

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  • Law LLB
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QUESTION 1




ANSWER


Although the M’Naghten Rules (MNR) have been relied on as the bedrock of legal standards for assessing

insanity for 180 years, they are significantly outdated and fail to justly distinguish between those who should or

shouldn’t be held criminally liable on the grounds of insanity. The rules are both too broad and too narrow

(Tadros, 2005) and without reform, will continue to proliferate uncertainty and inconsistency with international

standards (ECHR_.




The essay will first provide an overview of the insanity defence and MNR, before critiquing the impact of

applying a legal criterion of responsibility over not a medical understanding of mental illness, and its lack of

consonance with the ECHR. Then, this essay will examine which mental illnesses are included and excluded

from the rules’ ambit, criticising its threshold for determining who is insane, proceeding to highlight judicial

reluctance in Sullivan and critique the judgment of Windle. Finally, this essay will consider reform before

concluding that without Parliamentary action, the insanity defence remains uncertain and unpredictable due to

MNR’s inadequacy as a significantly outdated legal framework.




Insanity defence and MNR




For the defence of insanity to be pleaded, a defendant (D) must prove that they were suffering from a defect of

reason caused by a disease of the mind. The case of M’Naghten (1843) originated the test, establishing this

as meaning that either (i) they did not have knowledge of the nature or quality of their actions, or (ii) they did

not have the knowledge that what they were doing was wrong. Subsequently, D will be found ‘not guilty, but
Page 1 of 12

, insane’ rendering them fully acquitted (R [2013]) but subject to compulsory detention in a special hospital

(Schedule 1 Criminal Procedure (Insanity and Unfitness to Plead) Act 1991 (CP(IUP)A)). The primary

objective of MNR is to ascertain whether D possessed the requisite mental capacity to form the necessary

mens rea, for a particular offense. Notably, there are debates as to whether a special defence of insanity

should even exist, because if it only functions to negate mens rea then the facts giving rise to insanity could

fall within the scope of other defences such as duress (Morris, 1982). However, this is beyond the scope of

this essay.




However, since these rules were formulated, societal and medical understandings of mental illnesses have

drastically changed and rather act in contention with the outdated MNR, with the term ‘insane’ even being an

offensive or derogatory term. Whilst this may explain the concerned discrepancy between legal and medical

perspectives of mental disorders and why there are very few numbers of successful insanity pleas each year

(Law Commission, 2013), there is no excuse for why this approach hasn’t already been reformed.




A legal vs medical criterion of responsibility




It has been established that for the insanity defence to be pleaded, a ‘disease of the mind’ must be proven

with the burden on D to prove that they did not know the nature and quality of their act or that they did not

understand that it was wrong (M’Naghten). Immediately, this legal criterion places a significant burden of proof

on D to establish a disease of the mind on the balance of probabilities (Sodeman v R [1936]). This makes it

challenging for individuals with mental illnesses to show their lack of understanding or knowledge, increasing

the likelihood of a miscarriage of justice. In recognition of this pitfall, it is challengeable under Article 6(2)

ECHR as contrary to the presumption of innocence (Kebelene [1999]).




Secondly, what constitutes a disease of the mind is deemed to be a solely legal question, despite how a

medical condition should arguably be left to medical experts; the result being the definition is much wider that

justified. The denotation of ‘mind’ is unproblematic with Devlin J in R v Kemp [1957] defining it in the ‘ordinary

Page 2 of 12

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