Chain of causation

• When is the chain of causation broken?


  1. If the defendant commits an assault and injures the victim

  2. An intervening act known as a novus actus interveniens will break the chain of causation

  3. The defendant will no longer be held responsible for the death of the victim
• Novus actus interveniens


  An intervening act that breaks the chain of causation
• Liability


  Will only be imposed in cases of a positive act
• Factual cause


  'But for' test - the defendant can only be guilty if the consequence would not have happened 'but for' the defendant's conduct
• Legal causation


  There must be an unbroken chain of causation between the defendant's act and the consequence
• 'Thin skull rule'


  The defendant must take the victim as they find them. If the victim has something unusual about their physical or mental state which makes an injury more serious, then the defendant is liable for the more serious injury.
• Cases demonstrating the 'thin skull rule'

  • Rv Blaue (1975)
• Chain of causation


  The link between the act and the consequence. This must remain unbroken if there is to be criminal liability.
• An intervening act can break the chain of causation if it is sufficiently independent of the defendant's conduct and sufficiently serious enough
• Cases where medical treatment did not break the chain of causation

  • Rv Smith (1959)
  • Rv Cheshire (1991)
  • Rv Jordan (1956)
• Cases where the victim's own act broke the chain of causation

  • Rv Roberts (1971)
  • Rv Williams (1992)
• If the victim's reaction is unreasonable, this may break the chain of causation
• The chain of causation is the sequence of events that leads to an outcome.
• In criminal law, the chain of causation refers to the link between the defendant's actions and the harm caused by those actions.
• Intervening acts are third party actions that occur between the defendant's action and the harm suffered by the claimant/victim.
• An intervening act breaks the chain of causation if it was neither foreseeable nor preventable by the defendant.