Evaluation of Murder

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Evaluation of Murder

A good law should be clear so both the judge and jury can apply it in

a reasonable way, this makes it easier for the jury to follow and

provides a consistent outcome. It should be consistent, if not one

person could do exactly the same crime as another and they could have

completely different sentences. Consistency makes the law fair which

is another important element of a good law. The law should reflect the

degree of fault and punish the defendant in a suitable way; this also

provides justice for the family within the law. It should also provide

a defence this also makes the law fair and also provides justice for

the defendant as it will reflect the degree of fault. A good law could

also be flexible.

The actus Reus of murder involves the time limit. The law reform act

abolished the original year and a day rule and introduced a new time

limit. This meant the "death must occur within three years, after that

the attorney general's permission to prosecute must be obtained." This

introduction has meant it provides justice for the victim and reflects

the defendant's degree of fault. The three year rule also deals with

causation as the attorney general's permission is needed.

As for causation it could be said that it is too easy to pass the "but

for" test and substantial cause tests as it is very easy to find a

causal link between the defendant's actions and the outcome. The

operating cause test tries to provide justice as unforeseeable acts

break the chain of causation. There is controversy over medical cases.

For example blaue, you could argue that the defendant shouldn't put

the victim in that position, but ...

... middle of paper ...

...harged with the

murder of the baby. This brought about the question of whether a

foetus is a human being. One possible reform would be to include a

foetus as a human being but have separate legislation setting out

rules over abortion.

Altogether I think the law on murder is satisfactory. However I think

certain proposals for reform should be taken into consideration to

make the law better. I think English law should follow the example of

American law on different degree's of murder as personally I believe

it is morally wrong and unfair to treat certain cases of murder like

that of R v Cox in the same light as R v Brady and Hindley (1966) for

example, who tortured and murdered several children for no apparent

reason. I also think the wording of the mens rea should be changed to

make it clearer and more consistent.

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