CRIMINAL LAW
You will almost certainly want to study criminal law at some point since, like EU Law, you will need to pass it
in order to secure a qualifying law degree from UCL. So your more difficult decision is likely to be whether to
study it in your second or in your third year (though students on courses other than M100 may have no choice
here either). We shall say a few words in the introductory lecture about the various factors which may be
relevant to the decision of when best to study the subject, but it would help to have already studied criminal law
if you then opt to study criminology or the law of evidence in the third year. Certainly, if you enjoyed police
powers during public law in your first year, then you should already be at least thinking about evidence in your
third year – and if so, then you would be well advised to study criminal law in between.
The course will comprise of 34 lectures and eight tutorials which will follow those lectures. Lectures will
continue until the end of the second term; most probably there will eighteen lectures in the first term (normally
two lectures of one hour per week) and a further sixteen hours of lectures in the second term. There will be four
tutorials in each term. The eight tutorials (very broadly described) will cover the following subjects:
1 Criminalisation. No one knows how many different crimes are on the statute books, but it seems safe to
guess that there are over 10,000 of them. (By contrast, it is hard to think of as many as twenty different
torts). So we shall start the course by defining a criminal offence and shall discuss whether there are any
distinctive features which any course of conduct should have in order that it may be labeled as a crime.
2 Rape. We start our survey of the most important offences with the one that is most difficult to prove in
practice. Most rapists are thought to be already known to their victims, and disproving consent is
notoriously difficult. We will examine whether the new rules on proving consent in the Sexual Offences Act
2003 should make things any easier, and also the plea of a reasonably mistaken belief in consent.
3 Non-fatal offences against the person – the core offences of assault, battery, assault occasioning actual
bodily harm and inflicting grievous bodily harm. We will discuss in particular “psychiatric” harm and the
transmission of HIV through consensual sexual intercourse.
4 Murder We will focus upon the difficult notion of “intention”, since a murderer must “intend” to cause
death, or at least to cause grievous bodily harm (but it is not enough that he “merely” knew that either
consequence was quite likely). We will look at the recent Law Commission`s proposals for reform to the
law of murder. We will also discuss self-defence, which is a complete defence to murder.
5 Partial defences to murder – two (partial) defences, provocation and diminished responsibility, apply only
in murder trials (reducing the crime to manslaughter). We will discuss whether this should be the case, and
will discuss recent proposals for reform by the Law Commission.
6 Involuntary manslaughter – this is the offence committed when death is caused accidentally but as a
result of an unlawful and dangerous act or as a result of gross negligence. What, one might ask, is “gross”
negligence? A lot of case law is presently generated by drug dealers whose clients inject their dubious
products into their bloodstreams – but is it really the dealer`s mere supply of the drug which causes death?
7 Some general pleas – duress, intoxication, insanity and automatism. We will revise here some earlier work
on mistakes and the mental element in criminal law, and shall revisit the Law Commission`s Report on the
law of murder when discussing the proper scope of duress.
8 Theft and theft related offences. Theft is not about taking away something without the consent of the
owner. In fact, nothing needs to be taken, and the consent of the owner does not necessarily make any
difference either! Nor does anyone need to have been deceived in order for the new offence of fraud to be
proven! Prepare to be surprised as we survey the most important offences against property.
JONATHAN ROGERS