ABSTRACT
Introduction For some offences it is a necessary element of the actus reus that the defendant caused a particular result. In these result crimes it is not always a straightforward assessment as to whether it was the defendant’s conduct that caused the result, especially where, in a chain of events, the actions of other individuals or other circumstances intervene and contribute to the result. In establishing legal causation (that is, causation sufficient to render the defendant criminally liable for the result) an intervening act which breaks the chain of causation (a novus actus interveniens) will negate the defendant’s liability, since it may be said that the intervening event or act legally caused the result and not the defendant. Not all intervening acts will break the chain of legal causation since the defendant’s actions need only be a significant causal factor, not the only or last causal factor.
