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FE-1 Criminal Law study materials
FE-1 Criminal Law study resources

FE-1 Criminal Law: FE-1 Criminal Law: Elements, Offences and Defences

FE-1 Criminal Law · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.

All guide sections

FE-1 Criminal Law: Elements, Offences and Defences

Scope of FE-1 Criminal Law

FE-1 Criminal Law tests Irish criminal liability in problem scenarios: the elements of offences, statutory definitions, and defences. Expect questions that require you to apply the Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud Offences) Act 2001, the Non-Fatal Offences against the Person Act 1997, and the common law on homicide, rather than recite policy.

Core rules

  • Actus reus: conduct, circumstances and consequences. Mens rea: intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence as the offence requires.
  • Murder: unlawful killing of a person with malice aforethought-intention to kill or cause serious injury. The sentence is mandatory life.
  • Manslaughter: voluntary (provocation; diminished responsibility under the Criminal Law (Insanity) Act 2006) or involuntary (unlawful and dangerous act; gross negligence).
  • Theft, s.4 of the 2001 Act: dishonest appropriation of property belonging to another without consent, with intention to deprive.
  • Non-fatal offences: assault, assault causing harm (s.3), causing serious harm (s.4) under the 1997 Act.
  • Defences: self-defence, duress, necessity, intoxication, insanity, automatism and mistake; consider whether they negate an element or provide a justification or excuse.

Worked example

A picks up B’s coat in a cloakroom believing it is her own. On seeing B’s name, A decides to keep it. A has not committed theft at the moment of taking because she lacks dishonest intention. Theft is complete when, with dishonest intention and intention to deprive, she appropriates the coat. Initial innocent possession does not prevent later appropriation.

Traps

  • Do not assume every killing is murder: identify the mens rea and consider voluntary manslaughter.
  • Distinguish assault (fear of immediate unlawful force) from battery (actual unlawful application of force).
  • For theft, deal separately with dishonesty, consent, appropriation and intention to deprive.
  • Do not use a defence unless the facts support its elements; intoxication is not a blanket excuse.