INTRODUCTION In a scene from the 2008 film, The Reader , a female prison guard that had served during the Nazi occupation, Hanna Schmitz, is tried as a war criminal in a court set up by the victors of the war. One of the war crimes she is being charged with is for letting 300 female Jewish prisoners perish in a church that had caught on fire. Despite Schmitz’s defence that it was her duty to guard the prisoners and unlocking the church doors would have resulted in definite chaos, her pleas fell on deaf ears and she was successfully convicted. By isolating that particular event and eliminating the political duress that Schmitz was under at that time, it is important to understand that she was not the one who started the fire and was criticised and convicted solely on her inaction to unlock the church doors and let the prisoners out as she had the keys. …show more content…
In criminal law, this failure to act is identified as an omission and has been subjected to much controversy on its imposition of liability. However, before an analysis of whether or not it is fair to impose liability can take place, it is important to understand what an omission is, exceptions to the general rule of omissions which will include situations such as contractual duties, special relationships, voluntary assumption of care, creation of dangerous situations and statutory duties. Finally, the author will put forth arguments for criminalising failures to act and arguments against imposing liability for an omission before concluding why it is that the author feels that the rules and principles relating to criminal liability for an omission are not too restrictive on individual
However, due to this idea of strict liability offences not requiring proof of fault leads to the simple moral claim of ‘is it right to punish a person who had no intent to commit a crime, and took precautions not to let anyone get harmed in any way, to still be convicted?’ This opens the argument against the use of strict liability as it suggests that no matter what the opposing says, strict liability is a criminal offence and it is not vigorously enforced. This in turn lowers the respect to law and the criminal justice system as it appears that the justice system cannot
It is very common after adverse consequences or for actions not taken that lead to something seriously going wrong that someone has to take full responsibility and be held accountable. This idea in particular applies to health and care services where service user’s life and well-being can be seriously at stake. Carers must be responsible for the provisions that benefit service users than harm them and therefore they are accountable for what they do or omit to do. Accountability is clear list of tasks which failure to adhere to may result in penalties.
Jews have perished because of their beliefs since the beginning of time but never have so many Jews been persecuted worldwide as they were in World War II. Anne Frank’s diary reaches a place within all of our hearts because it reminds us how easily the innocents can suffer. Sometimes we may choose to close our eyes or look the other way when unjustifiable things happen in our society and Anne’s tale reminds us that ignorance, in part, claimed her life. Sadly, her story is but one of many of those who died in the Holocaust and as with other Jews, her fate was determined by the country she lived in, her sex and her age.
As aforementioned, Scots law does not impose criminal liability for failure to act, except in certain limited circumstances. These include both common law rules and statutory enactments. There are four instances at common law which give rise to criminal liability for failure to act, i.e., duties arising from close proximity relationships such as parent and child, voluntary assumption of responsibility, creation of dangerous situations or contractual duties . In Bone v HMA , a pregnant mother was found to be under a duty to save her child from the attacks of her violent partner . Per contra, in R v Instan and R v Stone and Dobinson the court held that when voluntarily assuming
Within certain circumstances, liability is based on the accused 's action, which is also known as an act of omission or negative act. Regardless of the defendant 's motive, the failure to act supports a finding of criminal liability only when the s/he is under a binding legal duty, has the necessary knowledge to behave aptly and carrying out his or her responsibility is possible. Even so, there are instances when the issue of guilt results from a lack thereof. Each element must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt and decided as a matter of law by the court. With regard to any crime, all criminal elements are distinguishable and identifiable for the careful analysis of each issue. Take for example the difference between points of dispute in Proctor v. State (1918) and People v. Newton (1973) when reading Criminal Law: Cases and Methods.
I see a fire! I see a fire!” (Wiesel 24). Everyone in the cart began to panic and look out to window; however, there was nothing but the darkness of the night sky. Madame Schachters episodes kept going on throughout the night until others had to beat her in order for her to be quiet. The train arrived at Auschwitz, and as Madame Schachter began to scream again, “the train stopped, this time we saw flames rising from a tall chimney into a black sky” (28). Whether Madame Schachter was actually seeing the flames or they were just visions in her mind, she was a warning to the others to be afraid of the fire. In the novel, The Hiding Place, Corrie’s only brother Willem writes a doctoral thesis of a terrible evil that is taking place in Germany. He wrote this paper at the university he was attending. Willem spoke of a hatred for human life that the world has never seen before, “He said, seeds were being planted of a contempt for human life such as the world had never seen” (ten Boom 29). There is no explanation as to why these warnings were ignored. Survivors today beat themselves up psychologically asking, why? Why did I not listen? Why were we all so oblivious to all of the rumors?
Elie Wiesel uses the elements of Fire,Night and Corpses to symbolize the horror of the Holocaust through imagery in his book Night. “Look!Look at this fire! This terrible fire! Have mercy on me!” “Jews, listen to me,” she cried.
This is a clear example of the growing pacifism of those who were not Jewish and how they chose to react, or not, to such acts. While it may come off as a cold shoulder, the important realization of this situation was fear. Those on the third floor, as many others did, pretended that nothing was awry during the ransacking of their Jewish neighbor’s apartments and homes. Propaganda, up to this
Discrimination is now becoming a well-known term around the world; many acknowledge it from the time they came across: sexism, racism, ageism, and the type Anne Frank came across, persecution. Anne Frank was a thirteen-year-old Jewish girl who was hiding from the German Army or the Nazi’s, as they are better recognized back then. Her life story consisted of constantly escaping and being in isolation from those who wanted her dead; it was a difficult time to live in. Anne Frank was attacked because of her differences; Adolf Hitler (leader of the Nazi’s) was killing anyone who was not classified as “pure” or part of the “superior race”.
Below is the memorandum for the negligence action regarding our client, Mr. Ragnarr Loobrok. To succeed in a claim of negligence, it must be proven that, on the balance of probabilities, that a duty of care was owed by the State of Victoria to prevent him from getting arrested once his bail conditions had been formally changed.
"On July 16 and 17, 1942, 13, 152 Jews were arrested in Paris and the suburbs, deported and assassinated at Auschwitz. In the Vélodrome d' Hiver that once stood on this spot, 1,129 men, 2,916 women, and 4,115 children were packed here in inhuman conditions by the government of the Vichy police, by order of the Nazi occupant. May those who tried to save them be thanked. Passerby, never forget” (De Rosnay 60). In the book Sarah’s Key, it begins with a young girl named Sarah Starzinsky, who is dealing with her family being removed by the French police and put into a camp. Before the family left, Sarah puts her brother into a closet and locks him in to where he will not come out until she comes back. However, Sarah and her family did not realize that they were not
In this article Lisa DiCaprio took a look at the movie Marianne and Juliana and also tried to explain what really happened during those years in Germany. On October 18, 1977, three members of the Baader-Meinhof gang, were found dead in their prison cell in Stamheim prison. While the officials maintained that the prisoners had committed suicide, many members of the Left, not only in Germany, but in Italy and France as well, challenged the official explanation. It was not easy to believe that two of those prisoners, were able to access to handgun to commit suicide. Among those who refused to concede to the state version of the deaths was Gurdun Ensslin’s sister, Christiane.
Torts of negligence are breaches of duty that results to injury to another person to whom the duty breached is owed. Like all other torts, the requirements for this are duty, breach of duty by the defendant, causation and injury(Stuhmcke and Corporation.E 2001). However, this form of tort differs from intentional tort as regards the manner the duty is breached. In torts of negligence, duties are breached by negligence and not by intent. Negligence is conduct that falls below the standard of care established by law for the protection of others against unreasonable risk of harm(Stuhmcke and Corporation.E 2001). The standard measure of negligence is the universal reasonable person standard. The assumption in this case is that a reasonable
This paper will be discussing the concept of strict liability along with the concept of absolute liability within the R. v. Sault Ste. Marie (1978). In doing so, this paper will explain how strict liability offences strike a good balance between the policy rationales for absolute liability in regulatory offences and the criminal law principle that only the morally blameworthy may be punished, and how the courts have interpreted absolute liability offence and their relationship with the Charter of Rights.
Further to the general negligence position on public bodies, in instances of omissions the general principle is that there is no duty to act unless a special relationship exists. However, there is an exception, a duty is owed if proximity is established as demonstrated in Home Office v Dorset Yacht Co Ltd [1970] UKHL 2.