W2L4 The Anatomy of a Crime - Actus Reus and Mens Rea

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering the core legal concepts, Latin maxims, definitions of offences, and landmark case law on the anatomy of a crime, actus reus, and mens rea from Criminal Law Lecture 4.

Principle of Legality

The legal principle stating that no one should be punished for an act that was not legally proscribed at the time it was committed.

Bernard Greenhuff (1838)

A case where judges developed the common law in a quasi-legislative manner to hold two men criminally liable for running a gaming house.

Crime

A situation forbidden by the law under threat of punishment, considered a public wrong consisting of acts, omissions, or states of affairs.

Common Law (in Scots Criminal Law)

Law evolved over time through court cases and judicial decisions that establish precedents from previous higher courts to guide subsequent decisions on an offence.

Legislation (in Criminal Law)

Statutory enactments creating crimes, which can be either UK Acts passed at Westminster or Scottish Acts that apply specifically in Scotland.

Actus non facit reum nisi mens sit rea

A fundamental legal maxim establishing that a person's conduct cannot amount to a crime unless it is carried out with a blameworthy state of mind or criminal intent.

Actus Reus

The conduct or physical element of an offence, involving doing something wrong, an omission (negative conduct under a legal duty), or a prohibited state of affairs.

Mens Rea

The mental element required for an offence, consisting of criminal intention, acting recklessly, or having a blameworthy state of mind.

Murder (Scots Law Definition)

Constituted by any wilful act causing the destruction of life, whether wickedly intended to kill or displaying such wicked recklessness as to imply a disposition depraved enough to be regardless of consequences.

Drury v HM Advocate (2001)

The Scottish authority expanding upon the institutional definition of common law murder to require wicked intention to kill or wicked recklessness.

Vandalism (Statutory Definition)

Defined under section 52 of the Criminal Law (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act 1995 as wilfully or recklessly destroying property belonging to another, without reasonable excuse.

Coincidence in Time

The general requirement that the actus reus and mens rea of an offence must occur together at the same point in time.

Thabo Meli v The Queen [1954]

The case establishing the 'one transaction' doctrine: where an attack intended to kill is followed by disposing of the body believing the victim dead, the acts cannot be artificially divided, satisfying coincidence of actus reus and mens rea.

R v Le Brun [1992]

The case establishing that where an initial unlawful blow and a subsequent accidental fatal act (inflicted while attempting to move the victim to evade liability) form part of the same sequence of events, actus reus and mens rea do not need to coincide strictly in time.

Fagan v Metropolitan Police Commissioner [1969]

The case establishing the continuing act doctrine: where an accidental actus reus (parking on a policeman's foot) becomes intentional by refusing to move, the required mens rea is formed during the continuing act.

Coincidence in Person

The legal principle providing that, in the vast majority of cases, the same individual must carry out the actus reus and possess the requisite mens rea for a crime.

R v Cogan and Leak [1976]

The case establishing that a defendant who has the mens rea for rape can be convicted of aiding and abetting rape even if the actual perpetrator's conviction is quashed for lack of mens rea.