Criminal Causation

What to look for in criminal causation:

• Actus reus

• (Factual causation + Legal causation)

• Not a Novus actus interveniens (intervening act)

• Mens rea

All of this makes a Crime.

Causation in fact:

• Works the same as Tort law, but is rephrased;

  • “But for D’s actions, would the harm not have happened.”

  • This comes from R V White in Criminal law.

Legal Causation: R V Hughes

• The defendant’s actions must be the operative and substantial cause of death, meaning their actions must have formed a significant contribution to the outcome (R V Hughes)

Novus Actus Interveniens:

• Latin for “New intervening act” (NIA)

• Must be proved by the prosecution to not exist because NIA’s can break the chain of causation. (Something has happened at some point which makes the defendant not liable because of an intervening act).

Medical treatment that is not an NIA

• Negligent medical treatment does not break the chain of causation where the original injury is either the operative or substantive cause (R V Smith; R V Cheshire) - This is all you need to know for A level.

• Operative - the injury is “live” - in other words, i am stabbed, and the bleeding kills me, “this injury is operative (because of this)”. (R V Smith) - A* typa stuff / degree level.

• Substantive - the injury may be partially healed, and it doesn’t directly cause the harm, but i would not have been harmed without the injury (R V Cheshire) - Also A* typa stuff / degree level.

Medical treatment that is not an NIA

• The negligence is palpably wrong; it was so potent and independant of D’s actions as to render D’s actions insignificant (R V Jordan).

Victim self-neglect or suicide (depends)

If the action is deemed to have been:

• Free

• Voluntary

• Independent of the defendant’s act

• Then the chain of causation will be broken (R V Wallace)

Unforseen actions of the victim:

• If the defendant’s actions are so daft and unexpected that their actions are unforeseeable because they are disproportionate to the threat that the chain of causation will be broken (R V Williams).

Third party actions:

• A third party’s actions can break the chain of causation if they are:

  • Unforeseeable

  • free, deliberate and informed

  • The third parties act becomes the substantial and operative cause of death.

The thin-skull rule

• Like Tort’s version “Eggshell rule”, the crime equivalent works in the same way.

• If a victim has some pre-existing vulnerability, then the defendant takes them as they find them: meaning they cannot argue that the harm would not have happened to a more robust person. R V Blaue.