Criminal Law Lectures
Actus reus, mens rea, inchoate liability, defences, and exam-focused criminal law analysis.
These criminal law lectures focus on charging logic and element-by-element proof. The aim is to help students classify the offence correctly, test the mental element precisely, and then assess whether any defence breaks liability.
What these lectures cover
Conduct, consequence, and circumstance elements across non-fatal, fatal, property, and sexual offences.
Intention, recklessness, negligence, transferred malice, and participation doctrines.
Attempt, conspiracy, complicity, causation, and omissions-based liability.
Self-defence, duress, insanity, intoxication, and other partial or complete defences.
Authority checkpoints
- R v Cunningham and R v G for the shape of recklessness analysis.
- R v Woollin for oblique intention and virtual certainty reasoning.
- R v Jogee for secondary liability and the limits of parasitic accessorial liability.
- R v Blaue and related causation authorities for novus actus and thin-skull reasoning.
How to use these notes in exams
- Map offence elements before turning to facts so no ingredient gets skipped.
- Treat defences separately and state who bears the evidential or legal burden where relevant.
- Use short, direct conclusions after each offence instead of saving every conclusion for the end.
Next steps
Move from lecture notes into questions and case work while the rules are still fresh.