murder

'the unlawful killing of a reasonable person in being, under the Queen's peace, with maliceaforethought express or implied'

ACTUS REUS:

1) unlawful killing - is lawful if in self-defence/prevention of crime. 2) omissions - relationship (Gibbins and Proctor), contractual (Pittwood), failure to minmise harmful consequences (Miller) 3) reasonable person in being - begining of life = when foetus can survive independently from its mother (Attorney-General's referenc), is permissionable to to turn off life support machine if brain dead (Malcherek v Steel) 4) under the Queen's peace - killing enemy in war time isn't murder 5) causation - factual causation 'but for' (White), legal - take victim as he finds him (Blaue), new intervening acts (Jordan, Smith, Cheshire), victim's own act (Robberts, Willams).

MENS REA:

malice aforethought, express or implied. expressed malice = intention to kill. implied malice = intention to cause GBH. Vickers - established intention to cause GBH is sufficient. foresight of consequences - Moloney, Hancock and Shankland. Nedrik - 2 part test - 1) do they feel death/serious injury was virtually certain result? 2) did they foresee this? Woolin - if answers to Nedrik test is 'yes' the jury must 'find' rather than 'infer' intention