There are several offences of unlawful homicide:
Murder
Manslaughter
Infanticide
Causing Death by Dangerous Driving
Assisted suicide and participation in a suicide pact
We will only examine Murder and the various forms of Manslaughter
Fatal Offences Overview
Homicide
Murder Manslaughter
Involuntary Voluntary
Unlawful and dangerous act Loss of Control
Gross negligence Diminished Responsibility
1
, MURDER
Basic Reading:
Herring, Chapter 5 and another textbook chapter on homicide.
Further Reading:
A. Ashworth, ‘Principles, Pragmatism and the Law Commission’s Recommendations on
Homicide Law Reform’ [2007] Crim LR 333.
Lord Goff, ‘The Mental Element in the Crime of Murder’ (1988) 104 LQR 30.
Law Commission Consultation Paper No. 177, A New Homicide Act for England and Wales,
(2006)
Law Commission, Partial Defences to Murder, Report [2004]; Part 2
J. Horder, Homicide and the Politics of Law Reform (Oxford: OUP)
B. Mitchell, ‘Further Evidence of the Relationship Between Legal and Public Opinion on the
Homicide Law’ [2000] Crim LR 814.
A. Norrie, ‘Between Orthodox Subjectivism and Moral Contextualism: Intention and the
Consultation Paper’ [2006] Crim LR 486
V. Tadros, ‘The Homicide Ladder’ (2006) 69 MLR 601.
W. Wilson, ‘The Structure of Criminal Homicide’[2006] Crim LR 471
The classic definition of murder is that of Sir Edward Coke (Institutes of the Laws of England,
1797):
Murder is when a man of sound memory, and of the age of discretion, unlawfully
killeth within any country of the realm any reasonable creature in rerum natura under
the King's peace, with malice aforethought
Actus Reus of Murder:
The unlawful killing of another person under the Queens peace
Who can commit murder?
‘A man of sound memory and of the age of discretion’
Unlawful
If D can rely on the defence of self-defence then he has not killed unlawfully – R v
Beckford [1988] AC 130
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