Principles of Criminal Law (Paper 1)

Question 1

Principles used to determine what conduct should be criminalised

Answer 1

Harm, Autonomy & Individual Responsibility

Question 2

Principles used to formulate/create new criminal law

Answer 2

Fair labelling, correspondence, maximum certainty, no retrospective liability

Question 3

Meaning of harm

Answer 3

Causing harm to others, yourself, property, and even future injury or harm, such as hate speech

Question 4

Causing harm to yourself will always be criminal. True or false

Answer 4

False, for example suicide is no longer a criminal offence

Question 5

Meaning of autonomy

Answer 5

The freedom to do whatever a person wants

Question 6

When will autonomy be limited

Answer 6

To limit harm

Question 7

Fair labelling meaning

Answer 7

Offences are labelled according to seriousness, and appropriate labels for each offence

Question 8

Examples of labels

Answer 8

Murderer, thief, robber, killer, attacker etc

Question 9

Principle that states there must be a link between the actus reus and mens rea

Answer 9

Correspondence

Question 10

Offence which supports the correspondence principle and why

Answer 10

Theft as there must be a ‘dishonest appropriation’

Question 11

Examples of offences which don’t support the correspondence principle

Answer 11

Murder, unlawful act manslaughter, ABH, assault, battery, ….

Question 12

Principle which states the law should be as certain as possible

Answer 12

Maximum certainty

Question 13

No retrospective liability meaning

Answer 13

Unfair to convict D of an offence if the unlawful conduct is not an offence at the time

Question 14

Case which did create retrospective liability

Answer 14

R v R