LAW109 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Summary Offence, Mens Rea, Lepra
15 Mar 2020
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Less serious offences typically dealt with in local court before a magistrate. Summary offences are to be proved beyond reasonable doubt and don"t exist in common law. Not all public order offences are summary offences. The regulation of behaviour deemed as anti-social or undesirable. Often tied to moral panics and close with police powers. Police granted wide-ranging discretion in relation to public order. Such as is calculated to wound the feelings, arouse anger or resentment or disgust or outrage in the mind of a reasonable person . Offensive language and conduct crimes are concerned with hypothetical not actual offences (stutsel v reid 1990). Members of the public who use or may use public places should know that they are protected from offensive language used in the public place or within hearing distance of a public place (jolly v r 2009). Offensiveness is judged from the perspective of the hypothetical reasonable person, according to the contemporary community standards.
