Billy, a plumber, is a violent, ill-tempered man. He was driving to a job one afternoon and was stressed out because he was running late. He turned into a road where the traffic lights were faulty and were in the process of being repaired by Sammy
MOD009362 Criminal Law CWK Assessment Brief 2026 | Anglia
MOD009362 Assessment Brief
| Assessment: Method (Type) | Coursework |
| Assessment code: | 010 |
| Trimester: | 2 |
| Module Title: | Criminal Law |
| Module Code: | MOD009362 |
| Level: | 5 |
| Weighting: | 50% |
| Word Limit: | Not exceeding 2000 words
This excludes the bibliography and other items listed in rule 6.83 of the Academic Regulations. |
| Assessed Learning Outcomes | Knowledge and Understanding
LO1: Demonstrate subject knowledge of major concepts, values and principles of the English criminal law LO2: Understand, analyse, and evaluate the importance of primary and secondary sources of law, and develop a critical understanding of their use, including contextual materials, to support the making of legal arguments. Intellectual, practical, affective, and transferable skills LO3: Communicate effectively and critically, using appropriate legal terminology and making use of relevant data, analysis, and evaluation derived from primary and secondary sources when necessary. LO4: Demonstrate the ability to identify legal problems and apply the law to practical scenarios to give the correct solution |
Writing Your Assignment
- This assignment must be completed individually.
- You must use Oxford Standard for Citation of Legal Authorities (OSCOLA).
- Your work must indicate the number of words you have used. Written assignments must not exceed the specified maximum number of words. When a written assignment is marked, the excessive use of words beyond the word limit is reflected in the academic judgement of the piece of work which results in a lower mark being awarded for the piece of work (regulation 6.74).
- Assignment submissions are to be made anonymously. Do not write your name anywhere on your work.
- Write your student ID number at the top of every page.
- Where the assignment comprises more than one task, all tasks must be submitted in a single document.
- You must number all pages.
Submiting Your Assignment
- In order to achieve full marks, you must submit your work before the deadline. Work that is submitted late – if your work is submitted on the same day as the deadline by midnight, your mark will receive a 10% penalty. If you submit your work up to TWO working days after the published submission deadline – it will be accepted and marked. However, the element of the module’s assessment to which the work contributes will be capped with a maximum mark of 40%.
- Work cannot be submitted if the period of 2 working days after the deadline has passed (unless there is an approved extension). Failure to submit within the relevant period will mean that you have failed the assessment.
- Requests for short-term extensions will only be considered in the case of illness or other cause considered valid by the Director of Studies Team. Please contact DoS@london.aru.ac.uk. A request must normally be received and agreed by the Director of Studies Team in writing at least 24 hours prior to the deadline. Students will need to provide evidence to support their extension request. See rules 6.64-6.73: http://web.anglia.ac.uk/anet/academic/public/academic_regs.pdf
Exceptional Circumstances: The deadline for submission of exceptional circumstances in relation to this assignment is no later than five working days after the submission date of this work. Please contact the Director of Studies Team http://web.anglia.ac.uk/anet/academic/public/academic_regs.pdf
Assignment Question
Billy, a plumber, is a violent, ill-tempered man. He was driving to a job one afternoon and was stressed out because he was running late. He turned into a road where the traffic lights were faulty and were in the process of being repaired by Sammy. The lights remained at red for what seemed like a very long time. Feeling enraged, Billy picked up a wrench from the toolbox in the back of his van and threw it at Sammy, shouting; “Fix those lights!”. Sammy stepped to one side to avoid being hit by the wrench. The wrench hit a passer-by, Aliona, causing her a serious head injury. Aliona was 27 weeks pregnant and immediately went into premature labour and gave birth. The baby was too weak to survive and died the same day. Aliona was taken to hospital and put on a life support machine. After a month, Aliona remained in persistent vegetative state and there was no hope of recovery. The doctors decided to switch off the life support. Medical evidence showed that the shock of the blow to the head had caused Aliona to go into labour prematurely.
Discuss Billy’s criminal liability for:
- Death of Aliona
- Death of Aliona’s baby
Note: The above scenario requires you to solve legal problem by identifying the issues, stating and citing the relevant legal rules (primary sources of law) and applying those rules to the facts in the scenario before reaching balanced conclusions. Discuss only offences which are on Criminal Law syllabus.
Reading Requirement
Child J and Ormerod D, Smith, Hogan and Ormerod’s Essentials of Criminal Law (5th edition, Oxford University Press 2023) chapters 1 – 6 available from Kortext Bookshelf
Herring J, Criminal Law (10th edition, Oxford University Press 2022) chapter 5 – available from Digital Library
The Crown Prosecution Service, ‘Homicide’ (Legal guidance – violent crime, 15 October 2024) < https://www.cps.gov.uk/legal-guidance/homicide-murdermanslaughter-infanticide-and-causing-or-allowing-death-or-serious
Assessment Criteria
| LO1, LO2, LO4 | Knowledge and understanding of the relevant legal rules |
| LO3, LO4 | Application of the legal rules to the facts and reaching balanced conclusions |
| LO3 | Structure and clarity |
| LO2 | Referencing |
Assessment Marking Rubric
| The work will be assessed in an integrative manner as indicated in the marking rubric, that is consistent with Anglia Ruskin University generic assessment criteria and marking standards | ||||||||
| Criteria / Grade | 0-29%:
Fails to achieve the outcomes |
30-39%:
Marginal fail |
40-49%: Adequate | 50-59%:
Sound |
60-69%:
Good |
70-79%:
Excellent |
80-89%:
Outstanding |
90-100%: Exceptional |
| 40 marks | 0-11 | 12-15 | 16-19 | 20-23 | 24-27 | 28-31 | 32- 35 | 36-40 |
| Knowledge and
understanding of the relevant legal rules |
Submission provides
no/little evidence of knowledge and understanding of the relevant legal rules. |
Submission does not identify the main issues but demonstrates very limited knowledge and understanding of the relevant legal rules | Submission identifies some of the main issues demonstrates adequate knowledge and understanding of the relevant legal rules | Submission identifies majority of the issues and demonstrates sound knowledge and understanding
of the relevant legal rules |
Submission
identifies all the issues and demonstrates good knowledge and understanding of the relevant legal rules |
Submission identifies almost all the issues and almost all the sub issues and
demonstrates excellent knowledge and understanding of the relevant legal rules |
Submission identifies all the issues and almost all the sub issues and demonstrates outstanding
knowledge and understanding of the relevant legal rules |
Submission identifies all the issues and sub issues and demonstrates exceptional knowledge and understanding of the relevant legal rules. |
| Application of the legal rules to the facts and reaching balanced conclusions | Submission provides no/little evidence of application of law and ability to reach conclusions.
|
There is a limited attempt to apply the legal rules. Conclusions are erroneous/missing. | Some of the relevant rules are applied, Conclusions lack balance. | Majority of the relevant rules are
applied, Some conclusions are not balanced. |
Almost all the legal rules are applied, Conclusions are largely balanced. | Almost all the legal rules are applied with excellent insight followed by reasoned, balanced conclusions in respect of all the identified issues. Work considerable originality | All the legal rules are applied with outstanding insight followed by reasoned, balanced conclusions in respect of all the identified issues.
Work demonstrates clear originality |
All the relevant legal rules are applied with exceptional insight followed by reasoned, balanced conclusions in respect of all the identified issues. Work demonstrates extraordinary originality. |
| 10 marks | 0-2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9-10 |
| Structure and clarity | The response fails to adopt IRAC approach to problem-solving. The structure is entirely illogical. Written expression consistently lacks accuracy, clarity and/or conciseness. Meaning is consistently distorted. | The response fails to adopt IRAC approach to problem-solving. Alternative structure is somewhat logical. Written expression consistently lacks accuracy, clarity and/or conciseness | The response attempts to adopt IRAC approach to problem-solving but with significant omissions. The structure is adequate. Written expression frequently lacks accuracy, clarity and/or conciseness | The response attempts to adopt IRAC approach to problem-solving but with some omissions. The structure is sound. Written expression is may at times lack accuracy, clarity and/or conciseness | The response adopts IRAC approach to problem-solving, with some minor omissions. The structure is good. Written expression is largely accurate and clear but may lack conciseness. | The response adopts IRAC approach to problem-solving, with very minor omissions. The structure is excellent. Written expression is largely accurate, clear and concise. | The response adopts IRAC approach to problemsolving. The structure is outstanding. Written expression is consistently accurate, clear and concise. | The response adopts IRAC approach to problemsolving. The structure is exceptionally logical. Written expression is consistently accurate, clear and concise. |
| OSCOLA referencing | There was no attempt to OSCOLA reference | There is a limited attempt to OSCOLA reference, but footnotes are consistently inaccurately presented/frequently missing. Bibliography may be missing. There is a complete absence of attention to detail. | There is an adequate attempt to OSCOLA reference, but footnotes are frequently inaccurately
presented. Bibliography may be missing. Attention to detail is lacking. |
Both the footnotes and the bibliography contain frequent errors/omissions. Attention to detail is insufficient. | Both the footnotes and the bibliography contain some errors/omissions. Student demonstrates good attention to detail. | |||