Law Outlines Criminal Law Outlines
Hello! These are my outlines for Criminal Law, based on the book Kadish et el., Criminal Law and its Processes (10th ed.).
The Full Course Outline provides detailed notes and case briefs on every issue covered in the first-year criminal law class. It is precise and comprehensive enough to pretty much substitute for reading the textbook. Some of my friends used these notes when they hadn't done the reading and successfully relied on them to answer cold calls.
The Exam Attack Outline is a ver...
The following is a more accessible plain text extract of the PDF sample above, taken from our Criminal Law Outlines. Due to the challenges of extracting text from PDFs, it will have odd formatting:
The Sweep of Criminal Law in America: 1-7; The Basis for Punishment: 89-95 3
Actus Reus: 221-234, 1072-1084 6
Ignorance of the Law: 325-350 28
First-Degree Homicide: 443-462 35
Unintentional Murder: 509-517 45
Involuntary Manslaughter: 490-509 47
Rape – Actus Reus: 351-390, 432-435 63
Aiding and Abetting: 691-733 80
Conspiracy – Actus Reus/Mens Rea: 744-766 90
Conspiracy as Accessorial Liability and Scope: 766-803 96
Diminished Capacity and Diminished Responsibility: 1061-1072, 1089-1095 140
Prosecutorial Discretion: 1179-1204 153
Plea Bargaining: 1204-1229 157
*NB: This outline accords with Kadish et el., Criminal Law and its Processes (10th ed.)
Regina v. Dudley and Stephens (Lord Coleridge, Queen’s Bench Division, 1884)
Two sailors, Dudley and Stephens, were indicted for murder of Parker on high seas. Defendants and victim were stranded for 20 days over 1,000 miles away from land, off the Cape of Good Hope. They had gone 8 days without eating. The two would “probably not have lived” if they did not eat the boy, and the boy “likely would not have lived” whether he ate or not. They decided against casting lots, and instead killed and ate the boy. Another sailor, Brooks, did not participate in the killing but did eat the boy. At trial, the jury gave a special verdict, finding that these were the facts and sending back to the judge the decision as to whether it was or was not murder.
Analysis
The question is whether the facts set forth were or were not murder.
Various definitions of murder imply exceptions for self-defense. Was this self-defense?
Not straight forward self-defense
It’s not like straight-forward self-defense, since it wasn’t the boy who was threatening them. You can’t kill a third party in self-defense.
There wasn’t sufficient certainty that the boy’s living would have caused their death. Moreover, it was possible that some of them would die, but the defendants’ decision made sure that the boy, rather than the others, would die.
No necessity excuse
In the ancient law, under Grotius and Puffendorf, in the case of extreme necessity, there was an exception for thievery. But in England, Lord Hale has rejected that exception. So it stands to reason that there should not be an exception for murder.
“To preserve one’s life is general speaking a duty, but it may be the plainest and highest duty to sacrifice it.”
Court sentences the two to death; crown later commutes to 6 months in prison.
Cannibalism long accepted as a fact of life at sea.
Notes
Necessity is difficult because the question of who gets to decide when there is necessity.
Is there a deterrent effect? Probably not, because if folks are going to die, they’ll probably going to do it anyway. Although there may be important effects for society in terms of acknowledging and enforcing norms; creating order and moving away from Hobbsian state of nature.
Two basic types:
Retributive: Backward-looking; punishment is justified because people deserve it
Positive retributivism: Society may and must punishment the blameworthy
Immanuel Kant espoused positive retributivism. There didn’t have to be identity between crime and punishment (i.e. lex talionis eye for eye), but just equivalence, except in the case of murder. “Whoever has committed murder must die.”
Victim impact statements
“Fair play”: Retributive theory that there are social rules prohibiting violence and deception and providing benefits for all involved. Assumption of burdens is what makes these benefits possible, and the burdens consist in self-restraint. Crime involves violating these rules, upsetting the balance of benefits and burdens by allowing one to shirk their burden. Punishment restores the balance by “extracting the debt.”
Problems
For one, it is not just the balance of benefits and burdens that matters, but the total quantity of each. Punishment may restore the balance, but reduces the overall quantity. Equality of burdens may not be the proper goal.
Moreover, the idea of “debt repayment” is specious, because moral debts are paid forward, not paid back. The debt isn’t extracted or repaid to victims, it’s wiped out.
Most importantly, the criminals are supposed to pay back their debt for what? The idea of equal benefits and burdens and resultant debt to society only makes sense if you believe that people are actually receiving equal benefits – which clearly is not the case.
Social cohesion: this is the “expressive function” of punishment, idea that there is value in punishment as the authoritative expression of condemnation of moral wrongs. It’s sort of like utilitarianism, but with a broader view of the good achieved than in Bentham or other orthodox utilitarianism.
Problem:
Neither crimes not punishments have coherent social meanings, and it is unclear why attempts to communicate those meanings should be considered good regardless of the consequences.
Communities are unified at deciding the relative seriousness of crimes, but not the absolute seriousness. They agree murder is worse than theft, but not what should be the sentence for each.
Negative retributivism: Moral guilt is necessary but not sufficient condition for punishment. Moral guilt sets an upper limit on how much punishment is appropriate.
Predictive sentencing: factoring in the risk that someone might reoffend to sentencing decisions
Rhode Island nightclub fire: failed to obtain...
Buy the full version of these notes or essay plans and more in our Criminal Law Outlines.
Hello! These are my outlines for Criminal Law, based on the book Kadish et el., Criminal Law and its Processes (10th ed.).
The Full Course Outline provides detailed notes and case briefs on every issue covered in the first-year criminal law class. It is precise and comprehensive enough to pretty much substitute for reading the textbook. Some of my friends used these notes when they hadn't done the reading and successfully relied on them to answer cold calls.
The Exam Attack Outline is a ver...
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