Reform and codification of the law of homicide: Reflections on the Victorian experience

Abstract

Victoria has moved further and faster in its legislative transformation of the law of murder than most jurisdictions. This chapter examines the Victorian contribution to that transformation. It will commence with a discussion of the ‘fair labelling’ of homicide offences before outlining two alternative model codifications of the crime of murder and comparing them with the Victorian law of murder. The first is the Australian Model Criminal Code definition of the offence in Chapter 5, Fatal Offences Against the Person 1998 (Model Criminal Code Officers Committee (MCCOC, 1998)). The second is the Law Commission proposal for codification of the law in England and Wales in its Report on Murder, Manslaughter and Infanticide (Law Commission, 2006).1 The two model codes provide the background for a critical examination of the Victorian law of murder. With the recent legislative abolition of ‘defensive homicide’, Victoria has come close to accepting the Model Criminal Code recommendations for reform. The chapter concludes with a consideration of the effect of the abolition of the partial defences on the meaning of murder, labelling and punishment.