The most epic case has to be:
R v BrownSome guy poured boiling tar down another man's urethra and was charged with something like GBH (escapes my head atm). Basically the man who's wee willy got sizzled consented because he enjoyed S & M. The issue that arose was whether you could actually charge the defendant if the victim had given his consent. He was convicted on the grounds that it was morally wrong.
There's another pretty interesting case which I haven't actually read up on much and I can't remember the name but a documentary has been based on it called 'Touching the Void'.
Two men (my father climbed with one of them when he was younger) climbed up a pretty tough mountain in the Andees. They reached the summit despite bad weather appearing and on the way down, one of the climbers broke his leg on the belay trying to pass an over-hang. The other man took on the responsibility of belaying him down the mountain using 2-3 lengths of rope and did well until they approached the glacier. There was an overhang with a crevasse below and the man with a broken leg was sent flying down the ice face until eventually he was hanging under the overhang directly above the crevasse. He had no way of communicating to the other climber who was holding him in place who was slipping gradually off his belay spot after hours of waiting in the cold. He eventually decided to cut the rope which resulted in the man hanging falling in the crevasse but miraculously being able to get himself out after breaking his other leg in the fall and being stuck deep inside.
The legal debate centered around whether the person belaying Joe Simpson should have cut the rope because he had a duty of care and could he be charged for murder as a result.
I got some pretty funny contract law cases so if you want more just ask.
Last edited by ..teddy..jimmy (2009-04-23 06:00:33)