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Podcast: Law School
Episode: Criminal law (2022): Defenses to liability: Automatism (law) (Part Two)
Description: Sleep.
The Australian Model Criminal Code Committee states the law as follows:
At the minimum there needs to be some operation of the will before a physical movement is described as an act. The physical movements of a person who is asleep, for example, probably should not be regarded as acts at all, and certainly should not be regarded as acts for the purposes of criminal responsibility. These propositions are embodied in the rule that people are not held responsible for involuntary 'acts', that is, physical movements which occur without there being any will to...