Eduqas A-Level Law A150QS
Parliamentary and European Law Making
Delegated Legislation
Statutory Interpretation
Judicial Precedent
The Civil Courts and Civil Process
The Criminal Process
Legal Personnel
Access to Justice and Funding
Contract: Rules and Theory of Contract LawContract
Contract: Essential Requirements and FormationContract
Contract: Express and Implied TermsContract
Contract: Misrepresentation and Economic DuressContract
Contract: Discharge of ContractContract
Contract: RemediesContract
Tort: Rules and Theory of Tort LawTort
Tort: NegligenceTort
Tort: Occupiers' LiabilityTort
Tort: Torts Connected to LandTort
Tort: Vicarious LiabilityTort
Tort: Defences and RemediesTort
Criminal Law: Rules and TheoryCriminal
Criminal Law: General Elements of LiabilityCriminal
Criminal Law: Offences Against the PersonCriminal
Criminal Law: Property OffencesCriminal
Criminal Law: Capacity DefencesCriminal
Criminal Law: Necessity Defences and Preliminary OffencesCriminal
Human Rights: Rules and TheoryHuman rights
Human Rights: Protection of Rights and Freedoms in the UKHuman rights
Human Rights: Convention ProvisionsHuman rights
Human Rights: Restrictions on Convention RightsHuman rights
Human Rights: EnforcementHuman rights
Human Rights: ReformHuman rights
Criminal Law: General Elements of Liability
- 9 subtopics
- 27 things to know
- Components 2 and 3
- Criminal Law, one of four areas of which three are studied
What Criminal Law: General Elements of Liability covers
Criminal Law: General Elements of Liability is examined in Components 2 and 3, if criminal law is one of the three areas you sit. It covers actus reus: conduct, consequences and states of affairs, voluntary and involuntary conduct, liability for omissions, factual causation, legal causation and intervening acts, intention: direct and oblique, recklessness, negligence and transferred malice, coincidence of actus reus and mens rea and strict liability and the Gammon tests.
Where it is assessed
Components 2 and 3
Substantive Law in Practice and Perspectives of Substantive Law, if this is one of your three areas.
Check the Eduqas specification ↗The 9 subtopics
Each one has its own page.
- Actus reus: conduct, consequences and states of affairsActus reus of an offence, three forms the actus reus can take and conduct crime.Open →
- Voluntary and involuntary conductInvoluntary conduct, difference between an involuntary act and an accident and conduct rendered involuntary by an external factor.Open →
- Liability for omissionsGeneral rule on liability for omissions in English criminal law and statutory duty to act.Open →
- Factual causationTest for factual causation, de minimis principle in causation and novus actus interveniens.Open →
- Legal causation and intervening actsOperating and substantial cause test and thin skull rule.Open →
- Intention: direct and obliqueMens rea, direct intention and oblique intention.Open →
- Recklessness, negligence and transferred maliceRecklessness in criminal law, negligence as a form of fault and offence that can be committed negligently.Open →
- Coincidence of actus reus and mens reaThe requirement that conduct and fault meet at the same moment, and the two devices the courts use to get round it — the continuing act in Fagan and the single transaction in Thabo Meli and Church.Open →
- Strict liability and the Gammon testsOffence of strict liability, offence of absolute liability and areas where strict liability offences are common.Open →
What you need to know
Answer each one before you reveal it.
Explain the two forms intention can take in criminal law.
Why must conduct be voluntary before criminal liability arises?
What is the general rule on liability for omissions in English criminal law?
What must the prosecution prove about causation in a result crime?
State the operating and substantial cause test.
Define recklessness in criminal law.
What is the coincidence rule?
What is an offence of strict liability?
What is the actus reus of an offence?
What is meant by involuntary conduct?
When can a failure to act amount to the actus reus of an offence?
State the test for factual causation.
Which case held that medical treatment broke the chain of causation?
What is mens rea?
Which case established the subjective test of recklessness?
Why can strict application of the coincidence rule cause difficulty?
What is an offence of absolute liability?
Name the three forms the actus reus can take.
How did Hill v Baxter [1958] illustrate involuntary driving?
Give an example of a statutory duty to act.
Which case illustrates the but for test?
What test did R v Cheshire [1991] set for medical negligence breaking the chain?
Define direct intention.
What test of recklessness did MPC v Caldwell [1982] introduce?
Name the two devices the courts use to satisfy the coincidence rule.
Give two examples of areas where strict liability offences are common.
Take Criminal Law: General Elements of Liability further
The same content, four other ways.
Questions from this topic
Each one with the model answer underneath.
- 1
What is the actus reus of an offence?
Model answer
The actus reus is the external element of an offence. The external element may be conduct, a consequence or a state of affairs.
- 2
Name the three forms the actus reus can take.
Model answer
An actus reus may be pure conduct, such as dangerous driving. An actus reus may instead be a consequence, such as death, or a state of affairs.
- 3
What is a conduct crime?
Model answer
A conduct crime is complete once the prohibited act is done. Perjury is a conduct crime because no consequence need follow the lie.
- 4
What is a result crime?
Model answer
A result crime requires the conduct to produce a particular consequence. Murder is a result crime because the prosecution must prove that death followed.
- 5
What is a state of affairs offence?
Model answer
A state of affairs offence punishes a person for being in a particular situation. The offence requires no positive act by the defendant.
- 6
Which case illustrates conviction for a state of affairs where the defendant was brought into the country against her will?
Model answer
R v Larsonneur (1933) upheld a conviction for being an alien found in the United Kingdom without permission. The defendant had been deported into the country by the authorities.
What is inside Levo
Six ways to work the same material.
Criminal Law: General Elements of Liability revision questions
- What does Criminal Law: General Elements of Liability cover in Eduqas A-Level Law?
- 9 subtopics: actus reus: conduct, consequences and states of affairs, voluntary and involuntary conduct, liability for omissions, factual causation, legal causation and intervening acts, intention: direct and oblique, recklessness, negligence and transferred malice, coincidence of actus reus and mens rea and strict liability and the gammon tests. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.
- How is Criminal Law: General Elements of Liability organised?
- By the Eduqas A150QS specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.
Every question in Criminal Law: General Elements of Liability, on a schedule.
Attempt a question from memory, write the correct version, then attempt it again. Levo records the jump between your first attempt and your last, and brings each question back on the day you are due to forget it.
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