Conclusion: The Partial Defence of Provocation and Lessons for Law Reform

Abstract

The operation of the partial defence of provocation raises significant questions surrounding the adequacy of past and present legal responses to lethal violence in criminal justice systems worldwide. Such questions have been the focus of this book and its examination of the unintended consequences of divergent reforms adopted in a quest to overcome the problems associated with the law of provocation. The value of post-reform evaluation of the law’s operation is acknowledged by American law professor, Victoria Nourse (2000, p. 977) who argues:

The interesting and challenging part is to understand how and when success lives with failure. This is worth investigating in its own right so that we may better understand the odd discontinuities of reform rather than simply assuming the impossibility of change or the ease of effectuating it.