Читать книгу Criminal Law - Mark Thomas - Страница 103

Legal causation, also known as ‘causation in law’ or ‘imputable causation’, is a much narrower and more subjective concept than factual causation. Although both concepts use the word ‘cause’, the distinction between the two is of utmost importance. A significant point to remember is that ‘not every cause in fact is a cause in law’.

So, factual causation looks at whether the defendant’s actions caused, in a ‘but for’ sense, the end result. Legal causation, on the other hand, looks towards whether the defendant can be blamed for the end result that followed. Williams in his Textbook of Criminal Law, 2nd edn (Sweet & Maxwell, 1983) refers to this as a ‘moral reaction’ and helpfully summarises the position as follows:

If the term ‘cause’ must be used, it can best be distinguished in this meaning as the ‘imputable’ or ‘responsible’ or ‘blamable’ cause, to indicate the value-judgment involved.