LAW2221
Criminal Law 2022-2023
CONSENT AS A DEFENCE TO NON-FATAL OFFENCES AGAINST THE PERSON
LECTURE OUTLINE
1. Express / Implied Consent
a. Express consent
b. Implied consent
2. Effective Consent
a. Capacity
b. Knowledge
c. Fraud
d. Duress
3. Recognised Categories of Exception
a. R v Brown [1994] AC 212
b. Categories of exception
i. Surgery
ii. Piercings, tattooing, hair cutting
iii. Religious flagellation
iv. Sports
v. Horseplay
vi. Sexually transmitted infections
REQUIRED READING
John Child and David Ormerod, Smith, Hogan and Ormerod’s Essentials of Criminal
Law (4th edition, OUP, 2021), Ch 7, specifically 7.3 and 7.8
R v Brown [1994] AC 212
ALTERNATIVE TEXTBOOKS
Janet Loveless, Mischa Allen, and Caroline Derry, Complete Criminal Law (8th edn.,
OUP, 2022), Ch 8.6
A P Simester et al, Simester and Sullivan’s Criminal Law – Theory and Doctrine (7th
edn., Hart Publishing, 2019), Ch 11.7 and 11.9
David Ormerod and Karl Laird, Smith, Hogan, and Ormerod’s Criminal Law (15th
edn., OUP, 2018), Ch 16.2.1
FURTHER READING
D. Bansal, ‘Bodily Modifications and the Criminal Law’ (2018) 82(6) Journal of
Criminal Law 496
A. Beetham, ‘Body Modification: A Case of Modern Maiming?: R v BM [2018] EWCA
Crim 560; [2018] WLR (D) 187’ (2018) 82(3) Journal of Criminal Law 206
S. Burris and E. Cameron, ‘The Case Against Criminalization of HIV Transmission’
(2008) 300 Journal of the American Medical Association 578
S. Cowan, ‘Offences of Sex or Violence? Consent, Fraud, and HIV Transmission’
(2014) 17(1) New Criminal Law Review 135
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, LAW2221
Criminal Law 2022-2023
S. Demetriou, ‘Not Giving Up the Fight: A Review of the Law Commission’s Scoping
Report on Non-fatal Offences Against the Person’ (2016) 80(3) Journal of Criminal
Law 188
A.M. Eugenicos, ‘Should We Reform the Offences Against the Person Act 1861?’
(2017) 81(1) Journal of Criminal Law 26
B. Livings, ‘A Different Ball Game’ (2007) 71 Journal of Criminal Law 534
S. Pegg, ‘Not So Clear Cut: The Lawfulness of Body Modifications’ (2019) Criminal
Law Review 579
P. Roberts, ‘The Philosophical Foundations of Consent in the Criminal Law’ (1997)
17 Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 389-414
S. Ryan, ‘Reckless Transmission of HIV: knowledge and culpability’ [2006] Criminal
Law Review 981
M. Weait, ‘Criminal law and Sexual Transmission of HIV: R v Dica’ (2005) 68 Modern
Law Review 121
M. Weait, ‘Knowledge, autonomy and consent: R v Konzani’ [2005] Criminal Law
Review 763
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