Aqa Law Unit 3 15th june 2012

How certain are we that Murder reform isn't going to come up? I've been told by my teacher never to assume anything but there seems to be a pattern concerning the criticisms/reforms question of Unit 3....I'm hoping it's Defences as I'm good on those...how is everyone else feeling?

And do we think this exam will be as horrible as the January one? (Admittedly I didn't do the Jan. one but it looked HORRID when our teacher showed us it)

Well for the Jan 2012 paper, they gave murder reform, so why would they give this reform question again. They could give non-fatal reform, but this has come up more times compared to the other reform questions within the new spec so there is a good chance that defences reform will come up. Which reforms have you revised and how much are you writing...I think what I have learnt might be too little =s I'm doing Insanity and Automatism.

And I agree with you.

Hmmm....true. Fingers crossed that defences comes up!

I am doing Insanity and Consent. I was going to do Insanity and Automatism like yourself but I felt I'd get to the stage where I was repeating myself. And I am writing however much I can fit in in 25 minutes to be honest...considering we have to fit in both criticisms and reforms...but we don't need an introduction or conclusion...I am going to aim for 3 criticisms and a reform paragraph for each...I'm most worried about timing if I'm honest, but during my mock I managed to time myself okay...so fingers crossed it goes alright in the real thing.

Also...in regards to writing too little...I don't think quantity matters...it's quality....I think if you've written a dribble they're gonna moan but if you've got 3 fairly well criticised criticisms down and a decent paragraph on reforms then they'll be alright. My teacher says that they know you're constrained by time and will give credit to what's there...positive marking

Oh wow you have very good points for what you have said in both your paragraphs. For me I think the insanity and automatism links in well so it'll be easier to comment and I can write a lot for insanity and a little for automatism. I guess I need to double check my timing. As for reform and criticism, we only need to write for one of the defences a reform, not for both. I do hope this will be a good paper. I am so worried about this paper and the unit 4 paper as well =/ And thanks for the pointer guess you're right lets hope we get good examiners marking our paper =]

Ahhh...and there was me thinking you had to do reforms for both...makes me happy to know otherwise

Well, I'm quite lucky with 2 outta my 3 A-Levels that my teachers are self-confessed harsh markers...so I know that if they are giving me Bs and As then if I get a nice marker I'm all good!

If you need any more help in the next few days just PM me

Well I hope this is the case because firstly it wouldn't be possible to write criticism's and reform for both the defences and that it what they had asked the last time they had asked this question in Jan 2011.

Yes, same here. I have maths and chemistry coming up this week and next week. Not looking forward to these next two weeks. Will be so hectic. That's very true...wish my teacher would actually firstly teach us properly -.-

Aw thank you very much. Same with you as well. By the way how is unit 4 revision going?

Unit 4 revision....well...the property offences are going well...I find them easy because there is a real structure to them...the synoptic topics I am going over next weekend...I find the synoptic topics really difficult because of the sheer amount of stuff to learn but quite easy at the same time as you can essentially make it up. I am going in with Fault, Judicial Creativity and Law and Justice, how about you?

The january paper was mega hard!
But I'm kinda confused..my teacher told me that q2 is always something to do with murder/involuntary manslaughter/voluntary manslaughter etc..but in the jan paper..no one in the scenario was killed..only injured..help?..did anyone else do scenario 1?

Q1 is usually non-fatals whilst Q2 is murder/involuntary manslaughter. But because there are two scenarios, it'll either be one or the other, so you could technically revise murder or involuntary manslaughter, depending on which you feel most comfortable with. I might do this but the jan paper was so fluky as scenario 1 was all non fatal but scenario 2(what I did) had involuntary manslaughter, non-fatals and murder! AQA were sly lol. For the critique, i'm just gonna focus on defences and a little non fatal, but then again the weasels might jinx it again with murder!

I have a strange feeling that we're in for an easy paper...

can anybody please tell me what the reforms are for consent and self defence. I have all the information about what the problems are but i cant find a single thing about a reform of consent and for self defence is the only thing you can mention that its been put into loss of control?

Echoing others here I have the feeling we're in for an easy ride tomorrow, considering January's was so darn hard...also hoping for defences to come up in the critical analysis ..by laws of fairness it should do because murder criticisms have appeared twice and so have non-fatal...defences only once. It makes sense to me to have defences (because I know it inside out). How is everybody feeling? To everybody

This is what i would put for reform for consent:

In relation to the reform of the law on consent, the Law Commission in their Consultation Paper LCCP 139 (1996) suggested modifying these rules, extending the range of situations in which consent may be effective and removing some of the problems. They suggest that the defendant should be able to rely on the victim’s consent to an act intended to cause injury, or likely to cause injury, but not to an act intended or likely to cause serious injury (Donnovan 1934). Also, they would keep surgical treatment as a special case, along with circumcision (R v J 2000), tattooing (Wilson 1996) and ear-piercing, but they would not give any special consideration to horseplay (Jones 1986) nor to sexual activities (Brown 1993). Another factor is that they suggest adopting special rules (the details of which need further consideration) in relation to boxing and other organized sports (Barnes 2004). No legislative action has yet been taken on these proposals (which were expressly excluded from the government’s own 1998 consultation paper on the law of assault), and their implementation must therefore be assumed to be a long way off.

Hope it helps

SCARED!