Write a critical analysis of the law on murder and voluntary manslaughter. Discuss any reforms that may be desirable.

Proposals for the reform of the law on murder and voluntary manslaughter have been put forward by the Law Commission in their "Murder, Manslaughter and Infanticide Report 2011", calling the law a "rickety structure set upon shakey foundations".

With regards to murder, one criticism is the fact that the idea of implied malice aforethought seems unfair as it means defendants who only intend to cause grievous bodily harm, as opposed to those who intend to kill, are still found guilty of murder and receive a mandatory life sentence, which doesn't distinguish between levels of blameworthiness and gives the judge no flexibility in sentencing (R v Vickers, 1957).

Secondly, the current two-part test for indirect intention has been established over a number of years through piecemental development of the law, the most recent of which was in R v Woollin (1998) which is still fairly recent, and so the law may not be truly reformed.

(Entire answer not provided but was marked 25/25).