Federation Command

Picard wrote:I do believe you have in the UK something our criminal code does not have which is diminished responsibility.

Yes, we do. It's contained in the Homicide Act 1957 and modified by the Coroners and Justice Act 2009. Prior to the Coroners and Justice Act 2009, the Homicide Act 1957 referred to abnormality of the mind. The change of wording in this respect was simply to clarify the law and is not expected to make any changes to the applicability of the defence. Thus case law under the Homicide Act is still helpful in determining what may count as an abnormality of the mental functioning.

Picard wrote:I don't know where you stand on the ''abuse of rights'' doctrine.

I don't really have a judicial opinion on that. Human rights are a universal standard. It's a component of every civilisation.

It's not liked to human rights for us. But that answers my question, thanks. Here, it comes from an interpretation of certain articles, but mostly it is an invention of the courts (which is not all that common for it is civil law we use in my province). Our tribunals do create law but they are not liked by the rules of the stare decisis. Our abuse of right doctrine is basically when judges decide to put aside the clauses of a contract when one of the co contractors exercises his rights in an abusive manner.

Ex: A bank recalling a loan and giving 24 hours to the person to pay. That is within their rights by the contract but abusive in nature. On the basis of Art 6-7 of our civil code they invented that concept. I was wondering if there was something similar in the UK common law. This has nothing to do with fraud, my guess is that there has to be something similar.

My personal opinion is that, well, I don't like juges having the power to nullify a contract just because one exercised it's rights in an abusive manner. Thats too subjective. I get the need to nullify a contract when their is an error or fraud but... oh well I like the strict application of the law and not I' am not all that warm to the idea of the sociology of the law.

Sorry for hi-jacking your topic, lieutenant. Glad you found it interesting.