Mens rea is generally an essential ingredient of a crime however. The essence of criminal law has been said to lie in the maxim. It may be defined as the mental element is necessary to constitute a criminal liability. Course notes criminal law course notes criminal law published by hodder education lisa cherkassky 2012 model answers to potential exam questions. Criminal law classically describes offences as being composed of two elements. The following is a more accessble plain text extract of the pdf sample above, taken from our criminal law outlines.
Criminal law actus reus requires an act positive act or an omission there is no general duty to act, as you only have a duty to act in certain circumstances i. Mens rea selfmade notes criminal law laws10032 studocu. One core act is usually enough for actus reus under the mpc, but need to look at the statute to. Mens rea elements are often harder to spot in legislation as the words are adjectives, generally nonstandard and emotive. For example, the mens rea of murder is intending either to kill or cause grievous bodily harm to any person. Lectures are conducted in a structured but discursive. The criminal law cram notes are formatted into a stepbystep guide, which you can use as a checklist in your exams to ensure that every element of the exam question is answered. This is an extract of our mens rea document, which we sell as part of our criminal law outlines collection written by the top tier of cuny school of law students.
Criminal law and procedure 01 introduction page 6 of 19 ii general principles of criminal law a doctrines of the crime a crime is composed of two parts. It is defined as the mental element necessary to constitute criminal liability. Thus mens rea means intention to do the prohibited act. There must be a concurrence between the actus reus and mens rea. In our example of theft, the mens rea elements are dishonesty and intention to permanently deprive. Establish there is temporal coincidence ie the mens rea is present at the time of the actus reus. Criminal law lecture notes actus reus lw3340 studocu. Mens rea, actus reus, and the role of the state oxford. The standard common law test of criminal liability is expressed in the latin phrase actus reus non facit reum nisi mens sit rea, i.
Welcome to the second topic in this module guide mens rea. Difference between mens rea and actus reus compare the. Concept of mens rea in the criminal law northwestern pritzker. Application of the general concept to some individual crimes, 5.
The mens rea of a crime is made up of those elements which relate to the state of mind of the accused. The role of defences is also considered, as the way that defences are named and grouped can cause confusion and obscure underlying principles. Elements to offences ii not every criminal offence needs to have a mental element. Mens rea in statutory offences legal service india. You may find the table of contents to be a quick and useful overview of the law to be applied. Hence, although mens rea is a sine qua non of a criminal act, its type and degree may vary from crime to crime. Meaning of mens rea it is a cardinal principle of law. Is willful ignorance doctrine a legitimate interpretation of. While every crime violates the law, not every violation of the law counts as a crime. The differences between the two will be discussed so the reader will be able to compare these terms effectively. Mens rea vs actus reus those of us wellversed in the field of criminal law have no difficulty in distinguishing the terms mens rea and actus reus and identifying the different between them. This chapter completes our introduction to the basic elements of a crime by introducing you to criminal intent, concurrence, and causation.
Grant extracts and collate s the principles that can sometimes be complex, in a way that allows for. If human rights are an issue, the lords may also consider this when weighing whether a mens rea should be presumed. Cases have distinguished between various ways in which actus reus and mens rea can be found to be coincident. Professor dressler notes that in this case, the unfortunate victim has found. Mens rea can be loosely translated as guilty mind, and it is a vital component when attempting to assess the criminal liability of an individual. The concept of mens rea developed in england during the latter part of the commonlaw era about the year 1600 when judges began to hold that an act alone could not create criminal. The term mensrea is not defined in the indian penal code. Why is the case of r v woollin important for mens rea. Mens rea, a persons awareness of the fact that his or her conduct is criminal, is the mental element, and actus reus, the act itself, is the physical element. Lecture 6 introduction to criminal law linkedin slideshare. Some elements relate to a state of mind that an accused had mental element.
Criminal law notes josh aizik 3 actus reus of the offence although not all crimes require a mens rea component, they all have an actus reus component. A frequent issue in criminal law litigation is whether a mens rea term in the definition of an offense applies to all or only some of the actus reus elements. Mens rea is not defined in the indian penal code ipc. It is the precursor to sentencing that is the area of law where the state acts in its most coercive and intrusive manner. Do you know the difference between cunningham and caldwell recklessness and what test is currently used to decide recklessness in criminal law. The insolvency act 1986 was examined in muhamad 2002. Mens rea a basic conceptions and applications b mistake of fact c strict. Mens rea erosion is more pervasive in federal criminal law than in state.
Mens rea 14 introduction to means rea 14 intention 14 direct intention 14 oblique intention 14 criticisms of intention 16. Criminal law b which follows criminal law a, builds. Introduction in the last chapter we noted that a criminal act or actus reus is required to exist in unison with a criminal intent or mens rea, and as you soon will see, these two components must com bine to cause a prohibited injury or harm. Notes on mens rea intention, recklessness and negligence. The concept of mens rea was developed when judges began to realise that an act alone could not in fact create criminal liability, unless accompanied with a defendants guilty state of mind. As a general rule, someone who acted without mental fault is not liable in criminal law. This guilty mind, or mental element, is known as mens rea for the vast majority of offences, mens rea will be satisfied if the defendant can be shown to have intended their actions or can be. Examples include intention, wilfully, knowingly, recklessly, negligently etc. The traditional starting point for the study of criminal law is the constituents of a crimi nal offence.
This lesson will define the terms mens rea and actus reus in criminal justice. Mens rea means that the offence must be committed knowingly and with an intent to evade the prohibition or restriction. Discuss actus reus and mens rea as components in commission of crime. For those not so acquainted, they probably appear as some latin terms that dont really make much sense. The mens rea is the guilty mind and the actus reus is the guilty act. The concept of mens rea was developed when judges began to realise that an act alone could not in fact create criminal liability. English criminal lawmens rea wikibooks, open books for. The words come from a latin maxim that holds there to be no punishable act that is not the result of a guilty mind. This means that the accused had a guilty mind at the time of committing the act. Do you know what direct intent and oblique intent are. Outline the burden and standard of proof in criminal law.
Actus reus a latin term meaning bad act consists of. He taught criminal law for 14 years at the university of the. The term actus reus may conceal important underlying principles, while the fact that mens rea is used in a number of different sense can also create issues. Subsequent development of a general mens rea as necessary for crime. That is to say when they formed the intention to kill, there was no actus reus as the man was still alive.
Attempt aggravated degees model penal code conduct circumstances results element analysis element. There was a material misdirection by the judge which expanded the mens rea of murder and therefore the murder conviction was unsafe. Criminal punishment requires that conduct be morally culpable. Criminal law revision quiz on mens rea how well do you know mens rea in criminal law. The word actus connotes a deed a physical result of human conduct. Intention mens rea means a mental state, in which a person deliberately violates a law. They appealed against their convictions on the grounds that the actus reus and mens rea of the crime did not coincide.
For a criminal offence to be complete, there must also be coincidence of actus reus and mens rea. Riminal law exam notes uni textbooks, tutors, notes. In addition to meeting all of the actus reus elements of an offence, a defendant must be shown to have a guilty mind at the same time that they commit the actus reus. Application of the general concept regarding some specific defenses. The court notes that the model penal code rejected.
Such situations will be discussed in the following sections. The significant point is that the criminal law punishes voluntary acts and does not penalize. Breaches of private law torts and breaches of contract are not automatically punished by the state, but can be enforced through civil procedure. When they threw him off the cliff, there was no mens rea as they can intend to kill someone they believed was already dead. Mens rea is the part of an offence relating to the defendants blameworthy state of mind when committing the actus reus. The mens rea and the criminal act or omission that brings about the other nonmens rea elements of the offence must exist at the same point in time courts take a flexible approach and are willing to construe a series of acts as one individual. A ashworth, principles of criminal law 2nd edn, 1995 16. The mens rea of the offence mental state of the defendant a mental state prohibited by the criminal law 3.
Mental state must occur at the time of committing the offence. Principles of criminal law, the criminal law can be analyzed or studied at different levels of. A fundamental principle of criminal law is that a crime always consists of both a mental and a physical element. Criminal law exists primarily to punish wrongdoers through the use of incarceration, fines and other punitive measures. Vagueness is a constitutional limit on substantive criminal law. But, there are cases in which mens rea is not required for an act to be an offence statutory offence.