Criminal Law

Criminal Law on the Durham University LLB Law (Year 2). The principles of criminal responsibility — the conduct and mental states the law punishes, the major offences, and the defences that excuse or justify.

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Actus reus — conduct, causation, omissions

Actus reus fixes the external limits of criminal liability before culpability can do its work.

38 min

Mens rea — intention, recklessness, negligence

The fault element fixes the boundary between blameworthy harm and criminal liability.

38 min

Murder — the mens rea of homicide

Murder turns on a narrow but contested mental element: intention to kill or cause serious harm.

36 min

Voluntary manslaughter — loss of control, diminished responsibility

Partial defences expose the fault-lines between homicide doctrine, moral culpability, and mandatory punishment.

39 min

Involuntary manslaughter — unlawful act and gross negligence

Manslaughter marks the boundary between culpable killing and murder’s more demanding moral condemnation.

32 min

Non-fatal offences against the person

The law of non-fatal violence is familiar in outline but unstable in structure.

34 min

Sexual offences — consent and the Sexual Offences Act 2003

Consent is the organising concept through which sexual autonomy becomes criminal liability.

38 min

Theft and robbery

Theft turns property doctrine into criminal liability; robbery adds coercive immediacy.

37 min

Fraud and the Fraud Act 2006

Fraud punishes dishonest risk-creation to property interests, not merely completed acquisitive harm.

33 min

Burglary and criminal damage

Burglary and criminal damage expose how property offences turn on trespass, risk, and lawful excuse.

34 min

Defences — self-defence, duress, necessity

Private necessity remains narrow; defensive necessity is structured chiefly through reasonableness and compulsion.

36 min

Intoxication and mistake

Intoxication and mistake test the boundary between culpable agency and evidential unreliability.

33 min

Insanity and automatism

Insanity and automatism expose the uneasy boundary between incapacity, involuntariness, and criminal responsibility.

31 min

Inchoate offences — attempts, conspiracy, encouragement

Liability moves upstream, but only where conduct, agreement, or assistance is culpably directed at crime.

31 min

Accessorial liability

Complicity turns assistance and encouragement into liability for another’s completed offence.

32 min