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CULPABLE CARELESSNESS: Recklessness and Negligence in Scots and English Criminal Law By Findlay G F Stark LLB (Hons), LLM (Aberdeen) A thesis presented for the degree of PhD in Law 2011 i Contents CONTENTS ................................................................................................................ I ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ....................................................................................... VI DECLARATION .................................................................................................. VIII ABSTRACT .............................................................................................................. IX LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ................................................................................... X 1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................. 1 A. SCOPE ................................................................................................................ 2 (1) Responsibility, culpability and liability ......................................................... 2 (2) Culpability as insufficient concern ................................................................. 4 (3) Crimes as “public wrongs” ............................................................................. 4 (4) Blame and Punishment ................................................................................... 5 (5) Free will and determinism .............................................................................. 6 (6) Is risk-taking harmful? ................................................................................... 7 (7) Case law ......................................................................................................... 7 B. CHAPTER OVERVIEW ..................................................................................... 7 (1) Chapter two .................................................................................................... 8 (2) Chapter three .................................................................................................. 9 (3) Chapter four ................................................................................................. 11 (4) Chapter five .................................................................................................. 12 (5) Chapter six ................................................................................................... 13 (6) Chapter seven ............................................................................................... 14 C. ORIGINAL CONTRIBUTIONS TO KNOWLEDGE ...................................... 15 (1) Analysis of the Scottish jurisprudence ......................................................... 15 (2) Comparison of Scots and English law ......................................................... 16 (3) Use of modern criminal law theory .............................................................. 16 (4) The practicalities of character theory ........................................................... 16 D. DEFINITIONAL MATTERS ........................................................................... 17 (1) “Subjective” and “objective” ....................................................................... 17 (2) The accused .................................................................................................. 18 2 AN “UTTER DISREGARD” FOR CLARITY: THE SCOTTISH APPROACH ............................................................................................................. 20 A. COMMENTARY .............................................................................................. 21 (1) The early writers .......................................................................................... 21 (2) Modern treatments ....................................................................................... 24 B. “GROSS” NEGLIGENCE ................................................................................ 27 C. ALLAN V PATTERSON RECKLESSNESS ....................................................... 28 ii D. QUINN V CUNNINGHAM RECKLESSNESS .................................................. 30 (1) The limits of Allan v Patterson recklessness ............................................... 31 (a) Conduct v mens rea .................................................................................. 31 (b) The court’s knowledge ............................................................................. 32 (c) Statutory offences v common law crimes ................................................ 33 (2) The test in Quinn v Cunningham ................................................................. 34 (3) Quinn v Cunningham recklessness and advertence ..................................... 35 (a) Authority and advertence? ........................................................................ 36 (b) Corporate confusion? ............................................................................... 37 (c) A “special” case? ...................................................................................... 37 (4) Quinn v Cunningham recklessness and inadvertence .................................. 38 (5) The drug supply cases: a new frontier? ........................................................ 42 (6) Summary: the law in common law offences ................................................ 44 E. JAMIESON RECKLESSNESS .......................................................................... 45 (1) The common law .......................................................................................... 45 (2) The Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act 2009 ................................................... 48 (3) Summary: the law in rape ............................................................................ 50 F. “WICKED” RECKLESSNESS ......................................................................... 51 (1) The need for intention .................................................................................. 52 (2) Is wicked recklessness advertent recklessness? ........................................... 53 (3) The law in murder ........................................................................................ 55 G. BRENNAN RECKLESSNESS .......................................................................... 56 (1) Problems with Brennan recklessness ........................................................... 56 (2) An alternative foundation ............................................................................. 60 (3) The law in voluntary intoxication cases ....................................................... 60 H. CONCLUSION ................................................................................................. 61 3 CALM IN THE STORM: THE ENGLISH EXPERIENCE ............................ 62 A. THE NINETEENTH AND EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURIES ................... 63 B. R V CUNNINGHAM ........................................................................................... 65 (1) Impulsive defendants ................................................................................... 67 (a) An “obvious” risk? ................................................................................... 68 (b) Closed minds ............................................................................................ 71 (2) Defendants who “could not care less” ......................................................... 73 (3) Acutely, voluntarily intoxicated defendants ................................................ 74 (4) R v Cunningham: summary .......................................................................... 76 C. R V CALDWELL; R V LAWRENCE .................................................................... 77 (1) Dissent and driving ...................................................................................... 80 (2) The extent of inadvertent recklessness ......................................................... 82 (3) Recklessness and (in)capacity ...................................................................... 85 (4) The “Caldwell lacuna” ................................................................................. 88 (5) R v Caldwell; R v Lawrence: conclusion ..................................................... 89 D. R V ADOMAKO ................................................................................................. 90 (1) Duties of care ............................................................................................... 91 (a) Establishing and extinguishing a duty ...................................................... 91 (b)