Chapter 03, Class 06(b)

Introduction | Causation | Factual and Legal Causation | Analyzing Factual and Legal Causation

Causation in Criminal Law

==The link between the conduct and consequence== elements of certain specified criminal offenses, usually culpable homicide.

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__________ is the test that is used to establish a __factual__ causal link between conduct and consequence: “would the victim still have died without the variable of the criminal conduct?“

The “but for” question

The two types of causation that (the Crown must prove beyond reasonable doubt) determine the link of the accused's conduct to the prohibited consequence.

• Factual Causation

  • How the victim came to their death in a medical, mechanical, or physical sense + the accused's contribution to that result

• Legal/Imputable Causation

  • Blameworthiness & foreseeability

  • Whether the accused should be held criminally responsible for the death that occured

Legal definition of __blameworthiness__ in the *Nette Case (2008)* with regards to legal causation

A legally blameworthy cause must be ==significant== and ==more than trifling/minor in nature.==