Discuss the following proposition: “Wrongdoers who cannot tell right from wrong are
exactly the sorts of people we should punish. Matters are entirely different if a person
causes harm without knowing the nature of his or her actions. Such a person lacks
mens rea and should be acquitted.”
Discuss.

This is my summative paper in Criminal Law. It requires two fundamental things: that one takes a position in the argument, and that descriptive passages be avoided. Doing one or the other will incur in penalties.

I will be attaching the marking criteria, and several baseline resources that can be cited. I will be indicating ten sources in the section below. This is indicative. A range of 8-12 is perfectly acceptable.

Please also see the following links

Law Commission:
Criminal Liability: Insanity and Automatism. A Discussion Paper (July 2013).
http://lawcommission.justice.gov.uk/docs/insanity_discussion.pdf
• On the question on whether an insanity defence is needed at all see pp. 29-38 of the previous
entry, the Law Commission Discussion Paper.
• There is a useful short version of the Law Commission’s proposals for law reform: Law
Commission: Insanity and Automatism Discussion Paper: Summary for Non-Specialists (July 2013),
http://lawcommission.justice.gov.uk/areas/insanity.htm