‘The House of Lords has a dismal record in criminal cases. All too often their lordships’ decisions have to be reversed by legislation…the present decision could well be another'.
In two recent criminal appeals of major importance on the meaning of mens rea, Caldwell and Lawrence, the House of Lords has departed so far from the academically accepted deffition of ‘recklessness’, that Professor Smith is driven to ask, ‘Can we really afford the House of Lords as an appellate criminal court?’. Such desperation surely indicates that their Lordships have got things badly wrong and it is our purpose in this article to examine whether this is indeed the case.