NCA Criminal Law flashcards

33 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Actus reus

The prohibited physical element of an offence: a voluntary act, a legally recognized omission, or a state of affairs defined by statute. It must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt by the Crown.

Mens rea

The guilty mental element of an offence, ranging from intent and knowledge through recklessness to negligence. The required level depends on the statutory wording and the common law characterization of the offence.

Voluntary act requirement

Criminal liability requires conduct that is willed or directed by the accused's conscious mind. Reflex actions, convulsions, and movements during automatism are not voluntary acts and cannot found liability.

Omission liability

Failure to act is punishable only where a legal duty exists, arising from statute, contract, a special relationship such as parent and child, or the voluntary assumption of care for another.

Specific intent offence

An offence requiring proof of a further purpose beyond the prohibited act itself, such as theft or attempt. Intoxication evidence may negate the required specific intent.

General intent offence

An offence requiring only that the accused intended the prohibited act, not any further consequence. Examples include assault and most regulatory offences. Intoxication rarely negates this mental element.

Subjective standard

A test asking what the accused actually knew, intended, or foresaw. Applied to intent, knowledge, and recklessness, and assessed on the evidence of the accused's own state of mind.

Objective standard

A test comparing the accused's conduct to what a reasonable person would have done or foreseen. Used for negligence-based offences and for some defences such as provocation.

But-for causation

The factual causation test: but for the accused's conduct, would the prohibited result have occurred? If the result would have happened regardless, factual causation fails.

Legal causation

The result must be a reasonably foreseeable consequence of the accused's conduct, without an intervening act that is independent and not reasonably foreseeable breaking the chain.

Thin skull rule

The accused takes the victim as found. Pre-existing physical or psychological vulnerability does not break causation, and the accused remains liable for the full extent of harm caused.

Transferred intent

Where the accused intends to harm one person but harms another, the mens rea transfers to the actual victim. It operates only between crimes of the same or lesser degree.

Mistake of fact

An honest mistake that negates the required mental element. For most offences the mistake must also be reasonable, except where the offence requires only a subjective mental element.

Mistake of law

Ignorance of the law is generally no excuse. Exceptions include officially induced error, colour of right in property offences, and where knowledge of the law is an element of the offence.

Concurrence

The mens rea must coincide in time with the actus reus. An intent formed only after the prohibited act is complete cannot retroactively supply the mental element for that act.

NCRMD

A verdict that a person is not criminally responsible because a mental disorder rendered them incapable of appreciating the nature and quality of the act or of knowing it was wrong.

Automatism

Involuntary conduct performed without conscious control. Non-insane automatism arises from an external cause and is a complete defence; insane automatism arises from an internal cause and leads to NCRMD.

Self-defence

A justification for reasonable force used to protect oneself from force or a threat of force. Reasonableness is judged on the totality of the circumstances, including the parties' history.

Defence of property

A justification permitting reasonable force to prevent another from entering or taking property. The force must be proportionate to the threat and not intended to cause death or grievous bodily harm.

Duress

A defence where the accused commits an offence under a threat of imminent death or serious bodily harm, with no safe avenue of escape and proportionality between the threat and the offence.

Aiding and abetting

Assisting or encouraging the commission of an offence with knowledge and intention. Mere presence or passive acquiescence at the scene is insufficient without some act of assistance or encouragement.

Common intention

A party liability doctrine where persons share a plan to commit an offence and one commits a further offence that was a probable consequence known or ought to have been known to the others.

Attempt

An inchoate offence requiring conduct beyond mere preparation that is proximate to the completed offence, together with the specific intent to commit that offence.

Conspiracy

An agreement between two or more persons to commit an unlawful act, accompanied by an intention to carry out the agreement. The offence is complete upon formation of the agreement.

Counselling

Procuring, soliciting, or inciting another to commit an offence. The counsellor is liable as a party if the offence is committed, and for the inchoate offence if it is not.

Provocation

A partial defence reducing murder to manslaughter where a wrongful act or insult would cause an ordinary person to lose self-control, and the accused acted on that sudden loss before cooling.

Intoxication defence

Evidence of intoxication may negate specific intent where it renders the accused incapable of forming the required mental element. Extreme intoxication may support an automatism-like argument.

Necessity

A defence where the accused commits an offence to avoid a greater harm, with no reasonable alternative, proportionality between the harms, and no legal duty to endure the danger.

Murder

The unlawful killing of a human being with the mens rea of intent to kill or intent to cause grievous bodily harm, or reckless indifference to life in some formulations.

Manslaughter

An unlawful killing without the mens rea for murder. It includes unlawful act manslaughter, criminal negligence manslaughter, and killings reduced from murder by provocation or intoxication.

Theft

The fraudulent taking of property without colour of right, with intent to deprive the owner of it. The taking must be without consent and the intent must exist at the time of taking.

Robbery

Theft accompanied by violence or threats of violence to a person or property. The violence must be used for the purpose of taking the property and must be more than mere force to obtain it.

Burden of proof

The Crown bears the burden of proving every element beyond a reasonable doubt. The accused bears an evidentiary burden for defences and a persuasive burden only for statutory exceptions.