Year and a day rule

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The year and a day rule was a legal principle from English criminal law that was valid until 1996 . The actus reus of murder was, according to generally not given if the death of the victim did not occur within one year and one day. Their historical reason for existence is to be seen in avoiding problems of evidence in the area of ​​causality: the longer the victim has survived the crime, the more difficult it is to prove that the perpetrator's crime was actually causal for the victim's death. The evidence methods of modern medicine made the rule largely obsolete, so it was abolished in 1996 with the Murder (Abolition of the Year and a Day Rule) Act 1996 .

The rule continues to be governing law in New Zealand's criminal law .

See also

literature

  • Nicola Padfield : Criminal Law . 7th edition. Oxford University Press , Oxford 2010, ISBN 978-0-19-958204-4 , pp. 187 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Crimes Act 1961 No 43 - Death must be within a year and a day . Parliamentary Counsel Office , accessed November 16, 2011 .