Abstract
This article takes stock of what is happening in the defence of battered women who are charged with homicide across three jurisdictions – Australia, Canada and New Zealand. In Part 1 the current legal requirements for the most relevant defences in all three jurisdictions are briefly outlined, with a focus on those legal developments that are likely to assist in the defence of battered women. In Part 2 general trends in how homicide cases involving accused battered women were resolved from 2000 to 2010 in the three jurisdictions are examined. This analysis suggests that further work is needed to improve the legal response to these kinds of cases, but that the changes needed are not necessarily in the area of statutory reform.
Disciplines
Comparative and Foreign Law | Criminal Law | Human Rights Law | Law | Sexuality and the Law | Women
Date of this Version
1-21-2013
Recommended Citation
Elizabeth Sheehy, Julie Stubbs, and Julia Tolmie, "Defences to Homicide for Battered Women: A Comparative Analysis of Laws in Australia, Canada and New Zealand" (January 2013). University of New South Wales Faculty of Law Research Series 2013. Working Paper 7.
http://law.bepress.com/unswwps-flrps13/7
Included in
Comparative and Foreign Law Commons, Criminal Law Commons, Human Rights Law Commons, Sexuality and the Law Commons, Women Commons
Comments
This paper was published in (2012) 34 Sydney Law Review 467. This paper may also be referenced as [2013] UNSWLRS 7.