scholarly journals ‘Red mist’ homicide: sexual infidelity and the English law of murder (glossingTitus Andronicus)

Legal Studies ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 407-430 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrian Howe
Keyword(s):  
Loss Of Control ◽  
Sexual Infidelity ◽  
Bodily Harm ◽  
Criminal Courts ◽  
England And Wales ◽  
Titus Andronicus ◽  
Attempted Murder ◽  
Grievous Bodily Harm ◽  
English Law ◽  
Diminished Responsibility

For over 300 years, criminal courts have regarded sexual infidelity as sufficiently grave provocation as to provide a warrant, indeed a ‘moral warrant’, for reducing murder to manslaughter. While the warrant has spilled over into diminished responsibility defences, wounding, grievous bodily harm and attempted murder cases, it is provocation cases that have provided the precedents enshrining a defendant's impassioned homicidal sexual infidelity tale as excusatory. Periodically, judges and law reformers attempt to reign in provocation defences, most recently in England and Wales where provocation has been replaced by a loss of control defence that, most controversially, specifically excludes sexual infidelity as a trigger for loss of control. This paper reflects on this reform and its reception, glossing Shakespeare's scathing critique of warrants for murder inTitus Andronicus.

5. Murder and voluntary manslaughter

2020 ◽  
pp. 99-132
Author(s):  
Nicola Monaghan
Keyword(s):  
Common Law ◽  
Mens Rea ◽  
Legal Knowledge ◽  
Loss Of Control ◽  
Bodily Harm ◽  
Grievous Bodily Harm ◽  
Key Points ◽  
Actus Reus ◽  
Partial Defences ◽  
Diminished Responsibility

Without assuming prior legal knowledge, books in the Directions series introduce and guide readers through key points of law and legal debate. Questions, diagrams, and exercises help readers to engage fully with each subject and check their understanding as they progress. This chapter explores the elements of murder and the partial defences which reduce a defendant’s liability to voluntary manslaughter. Murder is a common law offence that is committed when a defendant unlawfully causes the death of a person with an intention to kill or cause grievous bodily harm (GBH). Where a defendant has both the actus reus and mens rea for murder, but also has one of three special, partial defences available to him, his liability for murder is reduced to that of manslaughter (voluntary manslaughter). Loss of control, diminished responsibility, suicide pact, and infanticide are also discussed.

5. Murder and voluntary manslaughter

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicola Monaghan
Keyword(s):  
Common Law ◽  
Mens Rea ◽  
Legal Knowledge ◽  
Loss Of Control ◽  
Bodily Harm ◽  
Grievous Bodily Harm ◽  
Key Points ◽  
Actus Reus ◽  
Partial Defences ◽  
Diminished Responsibility

Without assuming prior legal knowledge, books in the Directions series introduce and guide readers through key points of law and legal debate. Questions, diagrams, and exercises help readers to engage fully with each subject and check their understanding as they progress. This chapter explores the elements of murder and the partial defences which reduce a defendant’s liability to voluntary manslaughter. Murder is a common law offence that is committed when a defendant unlawfully causes the death of a person with an intention to kill or cause grievous bodily harm (GBH). Where a defendant has both the actus reus and mens rea for murder, but also has one of three special, partial defences available to him, his liability for murder is reduced to that of manslaughter (voluntary manslaughter). Loss of control, diminished responsibility, suicide pact, and infanticide are also discussed.

13. Voluntary manslaughter

2021 ◽  
pp. 540-588
Author(s):  
David Ormerod ◽  
Karl Laird
Keyword(s):  
Common Law ◽  
Case Law ◽  
Self Control ◽  
The Other ◽  
Bodily Harm ◽  
Loss Of Self ◽  
Grievous Bodily Harm ◽  
Court Of Appeal ◽  
Partial Defences ◽  
Diminished Responsibility

Manslaughter is defined by common law as any unlawful homicide that is not murder. The offence is limited by murder at one extreme and accidental killing at the other. Manslaughter can be either ‘voluntary’ or ‘involuntary’. This chapter deals with voluntary manslaughter: this occurs when someone had the intention to kill or do grievous bodily harm, but relies on a partial defence to murder. The two partial defences considered in this chapter are loss of self- control and diminished responsibility (suicide pact is dealt with in Ch 15). This chapter scrutinizes the defences available to the accused and in particular the developing case law under the Coroners and Justice Act 2009 on loss of control and diminished responsibility, including the Supreme Court’s decision in Golds and the series of Court of Appeal cases since that decision.

7. Homicide I

2020 ◽  
pp. 81-92
Author(s):  
Jonathan Herring
Keyword(s):  
Self Control ◽  
Mens Rea ◽  
Bodily Harm ◽  
Essential Information ◽  
Loss Of Self ◽  
Serious Crime ◽  
Common Criticism ◽  
Grievous Bodily Harm ◽  
Partial Defences ◽  
Diminished Responsibility

Each Concentrate revision guide is packed with essential information, key cases, revision tips, exam Q&As, and more. Concentrates show you what to expect in a law exam, what examiners are looking for, and how to achieve extra marks. This chapter discusses murder, arguably the most serious crime in English law. Murder is where D kills V, and D intends to kill or intends to cause grievous bodily harm (GBH). The most common criticism of the offence of murder is that the sentence is mandatory irrespective of whether the mens rea is the more serious form (intent to kill) or the less serious form (intent to cause GBH). There were three partial defences to murder under the Homicide Act 1957 (diminished responsibility, provocation, and suicide pact). There are three partial defences to murder under the Homicide Act 1957 as amended and the Coroners and Justice Act 2009; diminished responsibility, loss of self-control, and suicide pact. The chapter considers the first two in detail. These are partial defences because they result in a conviction for manslaughter rather than a full acquittal.

7. Homicide I

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Herring
Keyword(s):  
Self Control ◽  
Mens Rea ◽  
Bodily Harm ◽  
Essential Information ◽  
Loss Of Self ◽  
Serious Crime ◽  
Common Criticism ◽  
Grievous Bodily Harm ◽  
Partial Defences ◽  
Diminished Responsibility

Each Concentrate revision guide is packed with essential information, key cases, revision tips, exam Q&As, and more. Concentrates show you what to expect in a law exam, what examiners are looking for, and how to achieve extra marks. This chapter discusses murder, arguably the most serious crime in English law. Murder is where D kills V, and D intends to kill or intends to cause grievous bodily harm (GBH). The most common criticism of the offence of murder is that the sentence is mandatory irrespective of whether the mens rea is the more serious form (intent to kill) or the less serious form (intent to cause GBH). There were three partial defences to murder under the Homicide Act 1957 (diminished responsibility, provocation, and suicide pact). There are three partial defences to murder under the Homicide Act 1957 as amended and the Coroners and Justice Act 2009; diminished responsibility, loss of self-control, and suicide pact. The chapter considers the first two in detail. These are partial defences because they result in a conviction for manslaughter rather than a full acquittal.

scholarly journals Murderous intent—The attitude of a murderer?

2021 ◽  
pp. 002201832110310
Author(s):  
Gavin Leigh
Keyword(s):  
Risk Taking ◽  
Bodily Harm ◽  
Cognitive Approach ◽  
England And Wales ◽  
Grievous Bodily Harm ◽  
Mental Element ◽  
Definition Of

There is a controversy in the definition of murder in England and Wales. This relates to ‘intention’ in the mental element, which can include the defendant’s foresight of death or grievous bodily harm (GBH) as ‘virtually certain’. This ‘oblique’ intent is criticised as morally under-inclusive. In this article, it is argued the crime can better capture those killings that should be categorised as murder by rejecting oblique intent. It is accepted that GBH ought to be a part of the mental element. However, the article proposes murder should capture heinous forms of risk-taking through knowledge of likely death or GBH which, if it were to occur, might be useful in contributing to the defendant’s purpose. This cognitive approach supports a murderous attitude called reconciliation. That attitude is contrasted with the dictionary definition of intention in which death or GBH can be used in pursuit of, or is, the defendant’s purpose.

13. Voluntary Manslaughter

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Ormerod ◽  
Karl Laird
Keyword(s):  
Common Law ◽  
Case Law ◽  
Self Control ◽  
The Other ◽  
Bodily Harm ◽  
Loss Of Self ◽  
Grievous Bodily Harm ◽  
Court Of Appeal ◽  
Partial Defences ◽  
Diminished Responsibility

Manslaughter is defined by common law as any unlawful homicide that is not murder. The offence is limited by murder at one extreme and accidental killing at the other. Manslaughter can be either ‘voluntary’ or ‘involuntary’. This chapter deals with voluntary manslaughter: this occurs when someone had the intention to kill or do grievous bodily harm, but relies on partial defence to murder. The two partial defences considered in this chapter are loss of self- control and diminished responsibility (suicide pact is dealt with in Ch 15). This chapter scrutinizes the defences available to the accused and in particular the developing case law under the Coroners and Justice Act 2009 on loss of control and diminished responsibility, including the Supreme Court’s decision in Golds and the series of Court of Appeal cases since that decision.

The Uses and Abuses of Constructive Trusts: The Experience of England and Wales

1997 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 437-463 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Harpum
Keyword(s):  
England And Wales ◽  
Central Thesis ◽  
Amorphous Nature ◽  
Fiduciary Obligations ◽  
English Law ◽  
Law Commission

This paper, which was first given on 19 October 1996 at a seminar on constructive trusts organised by the Universities of Edinburgh and Strathclyde with the Scottish Law Commission, examines the role that constructive trusts play in English law. It explains the amorphous nature of such trusts, how they are rooted in concepts of equity and conscience, and how they are often imposed in accordance with equity's traditional grounds for intervention. The central thesis of the paper is that a constructive trust, when imposed, will cause the trustee to become subject to one or more fiduciary obligations or incidents. One situation in which this is not the case— where a constructive trust is employed to impose an encumbrance on a transferee of property—is criticised. There is also a critique of the recourse to equitable maxims as a reason for the imposition of constructive trusts. The paper concludes with some reflections on the likely path of development of constructive trusts in English law and whether they ought to be more widely received into Scots law.

scholarly journals Direct harms and social consequences: An analysis of the impact of maternal imprisonment on dependent children in England and Wales

2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (5) ◽  
pp. 519-536 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shona Minson
Keyword(s):  
Social Processes ◽  
Social Consequences ◽  
Criminal Courts ◽  
Dependent Children ◽  
England And Wales ◽  
Child Relationship ◽  
Research With Children ◽  
The Family ◽  
Mother And Child ◽  
The Impact

This article draws upon research with children whose mothers were imprisoned in England and Wales, to investigate the impacts of maternal imprisonment on dependent children. The research directly engaged with children, in accordance with Article 12 of the UNCRC 1989, and is set within an examination of the differentiated treatment in the family and criminal courts of England and Wales of children facing state initiated separation from a parent. The article explores children’s ‘confounding grief’ and contends that this grief originates from social processes, experienced as a consequence of maternal imprisonment. ‘Secondary prisonization’ is characterized by changes in home and caregiver and the regulation of the mother and child relationship. ‘Secondary stigmatization’ occurs when children are stigmatized by virtue of their relationship with their mother. These harms to children call into question the state’s fulfilment of its duty to protect children under Article 2 of the UNCRC 1989.

R v Westwood (Thomas): diminished responsibility and disposals under the Mental Health Act 1983

2021 ◽  
Vol 72 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean Mennim
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
England And Wales ◽  
Mental Health Act ◽  
Court Of Appeal ◽  
Diminished Responsibility

This is a commentary on R v Westwood (Thomas), where the Court of Appeal of England and Wales held that the judge had erred in assessing Westwood’s ‘retained responsibility’ as medium to high under the Sentencing Council Guideline for manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility. Although the sentencing judge concluded that the offending was caused by Westwood’s anger, the Court of Appeal found the psychiatric evidence clearly indicated that the most significant factor was Westwood’s mental illness and that his anger at the time of the offence was a manifestation of his mental illness. Westwood’s responsibility was low, and it was appropriate to impose both a hospital and restriction order.  

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