Causation
There is also an issue of causation, in this the courts look at both factual causation and legal causation. Factual causation uses the 'but for' test, asking: 'but for the defendant's act, would the result still have occurred?' If it would have occurred regardless of the defendant's acts, there is no factual causation and the defendant is not guilty. Factual causation was effectively established in the legal case of Pagett . However, in the case of White the result would still have occurred 'but for' the defendant's actions, so there was no criminal liability. Legal causation uses the 'operative and substantial' test. The defendant's acts must be the 'operative and substantial' cause of the result, as seen in the case of Smith .
Read more about this topic: Fault (legal), Actus Reus Element
Famous quotes containing the word causation:
“The very hope of experimental philosophy, its expectation of constructing the sciences into a true philosophy of nature, is based on induction, or, if you please, the a priori presumption, that physical causation is universal; that the constitution of nature is written in its actual manifestations, and needs only to be deciphered by experimental and inductive research; that it is not a latent invisible writing, to be brought out by the magic of mental anticipation or metaphysical mediation.”
—Chauncey Wright (1830–1875)