Elizabeth Sheehy; Julie Stubbs; Julia Tolmie --- "Defences to Homicide for Battered Women: A Comparative Analysis of Laws in Australia, Canada and New Zealand" [2013] UNSWLRS 7

Last Updated: 8 February 2013

Defences to Homicide for Battered Women: A Comparative Analysis of Laws in Australia, Canada and New Zealand

Elizabeth Sheehy, University of Ottawa
Julie Stubbs, University of New South Wales
Julia Tolmie, University of Auckland


This paper is available for download at Available at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2212113

Citation

This paper was published in [2012] SydLawRw 22; (2012) 34 Sydney Law Review 467. This paper may also be referenced as [2013] UNSWLRS 7.

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.