ABSTRACT
To the Right Honourable the Lord Mackay of Clashfern, Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain
Part I
Introduction-The scope and structure of this report 1.1 This report is concerned with the criminal liability of those who kill when
they do not intend to cause death or serious injury. There are two conflicting schools of thought about the way in which the law should deal with such people. Some argue that society should always punish a person who causes terrible consequences to occur. Professor Hart puts the opposite view in these terms: All civilised penal systems make liability to punishment for at any rate serious crime dependent not merely on the fact that the person to be punished has done the outward act of a crime, but on his having done it in a certain state or frame of mind or will. In this report we consider what 'frame of mind or will' ought to be required if criminal liability is to be imposed for unintentional killing.
