Grade `12 Law.

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Antisocial Personality Disorder

ASPD, is a mental health disorder characterized by persistent patterns of disregard for the rights of others, deceitfulness, impulsivity, irritability, and a lack of remorse.

Psychopathy

A type of ASPD which sees people act more calculated, less impulsively, and often exhibit a lack of empathy or emotional depth.

Can be developed environmentally.

DOES NOT FEEL a significant amount of emotion

Sociopathy

More impulsive, less controlling, does feel, doesnt care. Widely believed that environmental factors are the primary cause of sociopathy.

Actus Reus

The Guilty Act, the physical action of committing a crime.

Mens Rea

The Guilty Mind, the mental aspect required for someone to be convicted of a crime

How do you prove the Actus Reus?

To prove the Actus Reus, you must prove either Commission, Omission, or Possession.

How do you prove the Mens Rea?

Negligence, Wilful blindness, Intent, Recklessness, Knowledge.

How do you defend the Actus Reus?

By forming an alibi, a plausible excuse (likely with an attesting witness) to prove that the accused person was not there at the time fo the crime.

How do you defend the mens rea?

By demonstrating a lack of intention or knowledge regarding the commission of a crime.

Typical defenses include:

Automatism (insane + non insane)

Intoxication

Coercion

Duress.

What is Negligence

Failure to take reasonable action

Give an example of wilful blindness

Ignoring obvious signs of illegal activity.

Under which circumstances will intoxication get you acquitted?

Being drugged/Intoxicated non-consensually.

Charter of Rights and Freedoms

Supreme legal text in Canada, outlines the un-infringeable rights and freedoms which every Canadian holds.

Canadian Bill of Rights

Predecessor to the Charter. A federal statute enacted in 1960 that guarantees the rights and freedoms of individuals in Canada, serving as a precursor to the Charter.

Classic Criminology

Criminals are made, not born. Crime is a free will decision.

Cesare Beccaria

One of the founding fathers of Classic Criminology. He argued against torture and the death penalty and advocated for fair and proportionate punishment. Italian.

What did classical criminology argue against, and what did it argue for?

Death Penalty, torture.

Argued for equal treatment and rational punishment.

Common law.

Otherwise known as Case law, legal system based off precedent. Judges use previous rulings to decide how they should rule.

Common law practices are most common where?

Commonwealth Countries.

Competing Rights

When two or more rights conflict with one another.

Defamation

A form of tort, a false statement made against another person

Tort

Civil wrongdoing.

Are corporations technically people?

Yes

Diplomatic Immunity

Immunity issued to diplomats, protecting them from prosecution while they work in another country.

Persona non Grata

Unwelcome person, diplomats are declared persona non grata if a government wishes to exile them.

Who can diplomatic immunity be waived by?

The sending state.

Insane Automatism

A defence against the Mens Rea, argues that a person does not have the mental aspect of a crime due to an underlying mental condition.

Non Insane Automatism

A defence against the Mens Rea

Argues that a person did not have control over their actions due to sleepwalking, extreme involuntary intoxication, or other.

Self Defence

The act of defending oneself with reasonable force to protect oneself from harm.

Does self defence extend to other people

Yes, so long as one uses reasonable force.

BWS (Battered Womans Syndrome.)

A condition in abused women who have experienced long term spousal abuse. Used to justify crimes against significant others.

Nescessity (Defence)

No reasonable alternative to committing crime or performing action

Duress

Forced to do something by another person.

What must nescessity do to be valid?

Prevent greater harm.

Double Jeopardy

The inability to be tried for the same crime in the same jurisdiction once a final decision has been reached.

Is a person being acquitted criminally but sued civilly an example of a double jeopardy?

No, criminal and civil courts maintain different jurisdictions.

Embargo

The blockage of trade with another country to exert diplomatic pressure.

Entrenchment.

To reaffirm a laws validity so it is not easily changed.

What is an example of an entrenched document in Canadian law?

Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Extradition

The process of surrendering a person to another country or jurisdiction (yes, including states in the US), for trial or punishment.

How is a person extradited?

Through an extradition treaty.

What is one condition for extradition in Canada?

Dual Criminality, Rights Upheld, No persecution, Fair Trial.

Give an example of something under Federal Jurisdiction

Military, Defence, Immigration,

Give an example of something under joint jurisdiction from multiple levels of government.

Law Enforcement.

Globalization

The process of making a world more reliant on one another, and with better relationships between nations.

Isolationism.

The opposite of globalization, where a country isolates itself from the rest of the world.

Human Rights.

The fundamental things which every human has the RIGHT to do, or have. (the right to do something is typically called a freedom)

ICC (International Criminal Court)

An international (nationless) court based in The Hague, responsible for trying those (PEOPLE, not COUNTRIES) responsible for the most heinous crimes.

Jurisprudence.

The study of legal theories.

Justice.

The fair and impartial treatment of all individuals regardless of any factor. Goal of all legal systems is to ensure Justice is served.

Distributive Justice.

Equal access to services, equal opportunities.

Retributive Justice

Ensures crime/punishment proportionality, ensures that criminals are punished.

Restorative Justice

A form of justice where the goal is to restore what was lost. Compensation of the individual victims or the community as a whole. Community Service, financial restitution.

Procedural Justice

Fair process in the legal system itself, making sure the processes to distribute justice are just themselves.

John Rawls

Justice = Fairness

Veil of Ignorance

Laws should be made thinking from a neutral perspective which encompasses all of society.

When is an inequality permissible?

Ideally never, however if so, to advantage the lowest advantaged people.

Jurisdicition

Legal power to make and enforce laws.

Geographic Jurisdiction

Jurisdictino based on physical territory, ie: Ontario, Canada.

Hierarchical Jurisdiction

Level of authority responsible for decision making, Supreme court has jurisdiction over OCJ, OCJ has no jurisdiction to rule over small claims court.

Subject Jurisdiction

Certain facts of the case may hand it off to a different jurisdiction.

Most severe of crimes may go directly to the superior court, the superior court will not initally see a dispute under 25,000 dollars, that is the jurisdiction of Small Claims Court.

Legal Positivism

The theory that what is written is law.

Legal Realism

The idea that law is fluid, not fixed, and changes with societal progression.

Divine Law

Laws derived from holy books, 10 commandments, Quran, Torah.

Natural Law.

What law SHOULD be, only truly moral laws are laws.

Modus Operandi

A criminals signature mark, what a criminal does every crime. Eg, always uses a specific weapon, always breaks in back window.

Obiter Dicta/Dictum

Additional notes in a judges decision.

Not precedent binding, just a clarification.

Patriate.

To “bring home“. typically used in relation to constitutions or other legal documents.

In canada’s context, we patriated our constitution from England in 1982.

Plato

Greek Philosopher, “Philosopher King“, student of Socrates, teacher of Aristotle.

Tripartite Principle

Reason over Spirit and Desires.

Precedent

Legal rule where judges follow other case rulings, ensures consistency within the law.

What is the result of precedent?

Similar case results, similar sentencing.

Classical Criminology

Crime is a choice of free will, criminals are made, not born.

Criminals are born, not made

Positive Criminology

Prima Facie

The First Look, the initial evidence required to bring a case to trial.

Privacy RIghts

Individuals rights to control access to ones own information

Ratify/Ratification

To affirm or approve a law or document.

Ie: by signing a document, you ratify it.

Ratio Decidendi

Reason for the decision, precedent binding, critical to the decision of a case.

Is obiter dicta precedent binding

no

Reasonable Limits

The extent of someones rights, to prevent infringement on another right or harm in general.

Give an example of reasonable limits

Freedom of speech and hate speech.

Oakes test

2 part test used for determining weather the infringement of a right was, or is, within reasonable limits.

Two parts of the oakes test.

Substantiality and Proportionality.

Redress.

The Correction of a Wrong.

7 S’s of CSI

Secure, Separate, Scan, See, Sketch, Search, Secure

Serial Killer

Someone who kills a number of people over an extended period of time

Nature theory (Killers)

Born not made

Nurture theory (Killers)

Made not born

Sovereignty

Authority a state has to govern itself

Theory of Anomie

Disrupted social norms, instability, and a lack of values contributes to deviant behaviour

How do urban environments and Anomie link?

Urban environments are dense, with little personal interaction, nobody knows you and the environment is constantly changing. According to the Theory of Anomie, urban environments would cause deviant behaviour.

United Nations

International organization with the goal of resolving global issues.

League of Nations

Predecessor to the United Nations, ineffective.

Wrongful Conviction

The act of being convicted of a crime you did not commit.

Veto Power

The explicit power of an individual, or entity, to overturn any decision at their will.

Pith and Substance

A doctrine used in canadian law to identify which jurisdiction a proposed law falls under.

Intra Vires

Within the powers

Ultra Vires

Outside the powers.

Voir Dire

Trial within a Trial

Two applications of Voir Dire

Evidence admissability, Jury Selection