... reus of manslaughter because it is the same as for murder. So, the way in which manslaughter differs from murder (and voluntary manslaughter) is in its mens rea. The bad news is that the mens rea aspect is a bit of a monkey. Anyway, the easy bit first: defined in very general terms, the mens rea of manslaughter is anything other than intention to kill or intention to cause grievous bodily harm. In other words, the mens rea for manslaughter is anything other than the mens rea for murder. It is, therefore, possible to identify four states of mind that might give rise to manslaughter: realising a risk and deliberately running that risk - subjective CUNNINGHAM recklessness; failing to consider a risk when a reasonable person would realise that risk - objective CALDWELL recklessness; and a mistaken belief that there is no risk when the reasonable person would realise there ...

See this essay or coursework document in full right now