Legal causation and intervening acts

Topic preview

1. 01

   Prohibited result definition

   For a result crime, how do you identify the exact prohibited result and connect it to D’s conduct before considering anything else?

2. 02

   Substantial causation test

   What does it mean to say D’s act was an operating and substantial cause of the result, and why is that the core legal causation question?

3. 03

   Independent intervening event

   When a subsequent event occurs, what indicators help you determine whether it is truly independent of the defendant’s conduct or merely part of the same causal sequence?

4. 04

   Medical treatment chain break

   How do you analyse medical treatment after D’s act: when is it merely a contributing factor, and when might it be so overwhelming that it breaks causation?

5. 05

   Victim reaction and causation

   How do you assess a victim’s own actions or reactions without assuming they automatically break the chain?

6. 06

   Third-party intervention

   If a third party intervenes, what do you ask to decide whether that act is a new cause or whether D’s conduct still legally caused the result?

7. 2 more building blocks

   The full topic unlocks with FLK2 Playbook, including the remaining prompts and answer-key marking.