Criminal Code Act 1995

Schedule - The Criminal Code  

Section 3

CHAPTER 2 - GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF CRIMINAL RESPONSIBILITY  

Part 2.2 - The elements of an offence  

Division 4 - Physical elements  

SECTION 4.2   Voluntariness  

(1)    
Conduct can only be a physical element if it is voluntary.

(2)    
Conduct is only voluntary if it is a product of the will of the person whose conduct it is.

(3)    
The following are examples of conduct that is not voluntary:

(a) a spasm, convulsion or other unwilled bodily movement;

(b) an act performed during sleep or unconsciousness;

(c) an act performed during impaired consciousness depriving the person of the will to act.

(4)    
An omission to perform an act is only voluntary if the act omitted is one which the person is capable of performing.

(5)    
If the conduct constituting an offence consists only of a state of affairs, the state of affairs is only voluntary if it is one over which the person is capable of exercising control.

(6)    
Evidence of self-induced intoxication cannot be considered in determining whether conduct is voluntary.

(7)    
Intoxication is self-induced unless it came about:

(a) involuntarily; or

(b) as a result of fraud, sudden or extraordinary emergency, accident, reasonable mistake, duress or force.