General Explanations

Your friend says, I borrowed your bike, so I was not stealing. The shopkeeper says, I sold the watch without checking, but I acted in good faith. A trader says I never meant anyone to be hurt. Everyday words like borrow, honest, intend, and dishonest carry a fixed legal meaning in criminal law, and an answer that uses them loosely loses marks. Which words does the Sanhita define, and how do they change the answer to a problem?

In two minutes

The Sanhita defines the words on which every offence depends, in s.2 (39 definitions) and s.3 (general explanations, including common intention in s.3(5)), and these fixed meanings are read into every section.

The rest of this chapter

The full explanation, the cheat sheet, every previous-year question at every mark weight, the quiz and the answer skeletons are part of Law of Crimes on LexBlox Semester. Sign in to unlock the subject, or read Module 1 of Legal Language and Writing free.