Regina v. Dudley and Stephens
England and Wales High Court of Justice
14 Q.B.D. 273 (1884)
- Written by Craig Conway, LLM
Facts
Thomas Dudley and Edwin Stephens (defendants) were on the crew of an English yacht, along with fellow seamen Brooks and Richard Parker. Due to a storm, the men were lost at sea in an open boat for approximately 24 days. They had no water except for occasional rainwater, and little food. After over a week without any food, Dudley and Stephens approached Parker, who was sick and in a much weaker state, and slit his throat. The three remaining men fed off Parker’s body for four days until a passing ship rescued them. Dudley and Stephens were put on trial in order to determine whether the act of killing Parker was murder. The jury determined that the men would not have survived to the time of rescue if they had not fed off Parker’s body and that, at the time, it was reasonable to assume they would die of starvation before they were rescued. The jury also determined that Parker would likely have died before the other three men. The jury made these conclusions of fact but was ultimately unable to reach a verdict as to Dudley and Stephens’s culpability. It instead submitted a special verdict requesting the court to determine Dudley and Stephens’s culpability based on its findings of fact.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Coleridge, C.J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 811,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,300 briefs, keyed to 988 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.
