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7 - Responsibility and the law

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 August 2009

By
Stephen Sedley
Edited by
Dai Rees  and
Steven Rose
Stephen Sedley
Affiliation:
Professor of Law Warwick University and the University of Wales at Cardiff; Judicial Visitor Warwick University and the University of Wales at Cardiff
Steven Rose
Affiliation:
The Open University, Milton Keynes
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Summary

When a defendant claims in an English court that his offence was not murder but manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility, the judge has to explain to the jury that:

Where a person kills or is party to the killing of another, he shall not be convicted of murder if he was suffering from such abnormality of mind (whether arising from a condition of arrested or retarded development of mind or any inherent causes or induced by disease or injury) as substantially impaired his mental responsibility for his acts or omissions in doing or being a party to the killing.

This provision was introduced into the law of England and Wales by Act of Parliament in 1957. It had by then been part of the judge-made law of Scotland for many years. Both jurisdictions had also for centuries reduced murder to manslaughter in cases of provocation. Provocation too was recognised by Parliament in 1957, but its classic formulation, which judges are still required to use, was given to a jury by Lord Devlin as a trial judge in 1949:

Provocation is some act, or series of acts, done by the dead man to the accused which would cause in any reasonable person, and actually causes in the accused, a sudden and temporary loss of self-control, rendering the accused so subject to passion as to make him or her for the moment not master of his mind.

Type
Chapter
Information
The New Brain Sciences
Perils and Prospects
 , pp. 123 - 130
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2004

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  • Responsibility and the law
    • By Stephen Sedley, Professor of Law Warwick University and the University of Wales at Cardiff; Judicial Visitor Warwick University and the University of Wales at Cardiff
  • Edited by Dai Rees, Steven Rose, The Open University, Milton Keynes
  • Book: The New Brain Sciences
  • Online publication: 08 August 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511541698.008
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  • Responsibility and the law
    • By Stephen Sedley, Professor of Law Warwick University and the University of Wales at Cardiff; Judicial Visitor Warwick University and the University of Wales at Cardiff
  • Edited by Dai Rees, Steven Rose, The Open University, Milton Keynes
  • Book: The New Brain Sciences
  • Online publication: 08 August 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511541698.008
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Responsibility and the law
    • By Stephen Sedley, Professor of Law Warwick University and the University of Wales at Cardiff; Judicial Visitor Warwick University and the University of Wales at Cardiff
  • Edited by Dai Rees, Steven Rose, The Open University, Milton Keynes
  • Book: The New Brain Sciences
  • Online publication: 08 August 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511541698.008
Available formats
×