Rethinking Causation in English Criminal Law: The Role of INUS Causation

Firkins, Grant (2023) Rethinking Causation in English Criminal Law: The Role of INUS Causation. PhD thesis, University of Liverpool.

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Abstract

This thesis argues that the current standard tests for causation in English criminal law should be replaced with a single test, known as ‘INUS’ causation – where a cause is an insufficient but necessary part of an unnecessary but sufficient condition. It argues that the standard tests represent a normative exercise in finding the defendant (D) responsible for a prohibited outcome, often grounded only in D’s moral responsibility for that outcome. Such an approach is problematic because moral responsibility is irrelevant to causal responsibility; and a failure to distinguish causal responsibility from moral responsibility results in inappropriate criminal- responsibility ascription for result crimes. In contrast, INUS would provide a single, non- normative test of causation; a metaphysical one that offers a robust causal enquiry which focuses only on causal responsibility, thereby contributing more appropriately to criminal- responsibility ascription. INUS would also yield practical benefits since it can engage with causal enquires in a broader range of cases on a more principled, clear and consistent basis. Having argued the case for the INUS approach, this thesis examines some of the potentially problematic implications of adopting INUS in English criminal law via two case studies: one on strict-liability offences involving injury or death by driving and one on complicity liability. For the first case study, the focus is on such offences as they are the main stigmatic strict-liability result crimes which raise causal problems. The thesis contends that adoption of INUS would alter the liability outcomes in cases involving these offences so that instead of being acquitted, the defendants would be criminally liable. This is because INUS removes the blameworthy requirement which has been injected into the standard tests of causation. However, this would yield fair-labelling concerns for these crimes which could be addressed by importing a blameworthy element into the offences, specifically by importing the requirement of ‘careless driving’. INUS would also affect our understanding of complicity liability. According to INUS, there is typically no causal connection between the accomplice’s assistance or encouragement and the principal’s offence. Adoption of INUS would therefore confirm that the rationale of complicity liability does not lie in any causal connection between the accomplice’s assistance or encouragement and the principal’s offence. However, this would yield criminal- responsibility and fair-labelling concerns which could be addressed by reforms to complicity that reconcile it with these principles of criminal justice. The thesis therefore proposes a new independent offence of ‘assisting or encouraging an offence’.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	INUS, causation, moral responsibility, criminal responsibility, culpable wrongdoing, causal responsibility
Divisions:	Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of Law and Social Justice
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	30 Jan 2024 16:26
Last Modified:	30 Jan 2024 16:26
DOI:	10.17638/03172683
Supervisors:	Gibson, Matthew Fox, Marie
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3172683