Contents

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JCL 72 (2008) 387

Kennedy and Unlawful Act Manslaughter: An Unorthodox Application of the Doctrine of Causation
Lisa Cherkassky

The decision of the House of Lords in R v Kennedy (No. 2) was welcomed by many academics as a return to the traditional application of causation. The victim in Kennedy was found to have broken the chain of causation between himself and his drug supplier when he self-injected with an already prepared syringe and produced his own death. However, on a careful examination of the law, can the rationale behind Kennedy be supported? This article explores Kennedy’s unconventional relationship with the doctrine of causation and casts a critical eye over the application of the doctrine in ‘fright and flight’ and ‘victim’ cases. There appears to be no correlation between the judgment in Kennedy and the well-established causal principles of foreseeability and novus actus interveniens in the criminal law. Will Kennedy end up being another Environment Agency v Empress Car Co. Ltd?

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JCL 72 (2008) 409

Proposals for Reforming the Law of Self-defence
Amir Pichhadze

The English law of self-defence has attracted significant attention following the controversial decision of the Court of Appeal in R v Martin. At the heart of the controversy is the determination of the reasonableness of a defendant’s apprehension of the necessity to use a particular amount of force in self-defence. When comparing the defendant’s apprehension and actions to those of a reasonable person in the same circumstances, what characteristics of the defendant must be attributable to the reasonable person in order for the test to be appropriate? This article argues that while the Court of Appeal’s reluctance to allow a psychologically individualised standard of reasonableness may have been correct, the court should have reformulated the purely objective standard into a contextual objective standard. It is suggested that unless such reform is undertaken, the English law of self-defence will remain unduly constrained. Reform proposals by the Law Commission have made it clear that such reform is not on the horizon. As an alternative, the Law Commission proposed a reformulated defence of provocation. While this alternative is commendable, it does not remove the need to reform the objective standard of reasonableness in the law of self-defence

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JCL 72 (2008) 441

The ‘Trading Model’ of Bribery: Power, Interest and Trilateral Structure
Gaoneng Yu

Through careful examination of the five influential models in defining the elements of bribery offences, ‘breach of duty’ had been recognised as the core concept of these models but has proved to be ineffective. As a special kind of trade which involves exchanges between different kinds of interest with power as their medium, bribery is a relational concept concerning three parties and three pairs of relationships. ‘Breach of duty’ theory only explains one single side of one of the three relationships. Meanwhile, it fails to target power as the key element of bribery. Obviously, it is power not duty that is utilised during the trade; bribery is always misuse or abuse of power. By taking the ‘essence and harm approach’, this article elaborates the essence of bribery and develops a new effective model for bribery legislation.

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Links to other issues

Volume 65 (2001) :   1   2   3   4   5   6

Volume 66 (2002) :   1   2   3   4   5   6

Volume 67 (2003) :   1   2   3   4   5   6

Volume 68 (2004) :   1   2   3   4   5   6

Volume 69 (2005) :   1   2   3   4   5   6

Volume 70 (2006) :   1   2   3   4   5   6

Volume 71 (2007) :   1   2   3   4   5   6

Volume 72 (2008) :   1   2   3   4   5   6

Volume 73 (2009) :   1   2   3   4   6

Volume 74 (2010) :   1   2   3   4

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