Criminal Law Assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Criminal Law Assignment - Essay Example The most popular rhetorical questions are, what do you mean by â€Å"reasonable†? â€Å"How do you recognise a reasonable man?† â€Å"Based on what criteria will one judge as to the reasonableness of a person?† reasonable person as the â€Å"ordinary person, is the person you must consider when you are considering the effect which any acts, any conduct, any words, might have to justify the steps which were taken in response thereto, so that an unusually excitable or pugnacious individual, or a drunken one or a man who is sexually impotent is not entitled to rely on provocation which would not have led an ordinary person to have acted in the way which was in fact carried out.2 Long before the enactment of the Homicide Act 1957, the philosophy of the reasonable man had been fairly established. Section 3 of the Homicide Act 1957 provides that where on a charge of murder there is evidence on which the jury find that the person charged was provoked (whether by things done or by things said or both together) to lose his self-control, the question whether the provocation was enough to make a reasonable man to do as he did shall be left to be determined by the jury. Furthermore, in determining that question, the jury shall take into account everything both done and said according to the effect, which, in their opinion, it would have on a reasonable man. In Regina v Smith decided by the House of Lords, section 3 of the 1957 Act was further discussed that where there is evidence on which the jury can find that the defendant was provoked to lose his self-control, (1) the judge is bound to leave that matter to the jury and (2) the jury are to decide the matter by taking into account everything done and said according to the effect which, in their opinion, it would have on a reasonable man. 3 The enactment of the Homicide Law proved to be divisive in the light of the Philosophy of the Reasonable Man. Lord Hoffmann observes, section 3 modified the law in two