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Old 11th Mar 2009, 14:57
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Justiciar
 
Join Date: May 2003
Location: Gt. Yarmouth, Norfolk
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Murder requires the proving of intent to kill, or taking some action that could reasonably result in the death of another such as an assault.
Murder is causing death with either an intent to kill or to an intent to cause grievous bodily harm; manslaughter is the causing of a death as the result of some other unlawful act. Death resulting from a common assault would not be murder, it would be manslaughter.

The law of self defence has not changed in the last few years (it was codified in 2008) though prosecution guidelines have. Any person may use reasonable force in self defence or preventing a crime. What amounts to reasonable force will depend on the circumstances as the defendant believed them to be. Obviously, the force you can use to prevent a burglary of you home is going to be potentially much greater than you could use to stop someone dropping litter! In fact courts and juries have been generally quite lenient in judging acts committed in the heat of the moment. The problem with the law is that when applied to a murder charge, if the force is found to be excessive then the person will be convicted of murder, i.e. the self defence argument cannot be used to reduce murder to manslaughter, it is an all or nothing defence.
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