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Definition:
The concept of mens rea refers in law to the question of a mental act in a criminal case. According to the traditional principle,
actus non facit reum nisi mens sit rea, which means that "an act does not make a man guilty
unless the mind is guilty. In other words, without the existence of a guilty intention, a person should not be found
guilty of committing some crime - accidental acts are not to be regarded as criminal.
Although this seems reasonable, there are problems with it. How, for example, are we to treat people who commit crimes out of negligence, for example failing to stop at a stop sign because they did not see it? They are often given a fine and held responsible for that negligence, which would seem to violate the above principle.
The question of intention is also often problematic. People are generally held responsible for an act which they did not intent so long as the consequences were foreseeable. Thus, a person who shoots a gun into a crowd can be found guilty of murder even though they can argue that they did not intend to kill anyone because the results, someone's death, were readily forseeable.
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Related Resources:
What are Political and Legal Philosophy
The Philosophy of Politics and the Philosophy of Law are often studied separately, but they are presented here jointly because they both come back to the same thing: the study of force. Politics is the study of political force in the general community, while jurisprudence is the study of how laws can and should be used to achieve political and social goals.What is Philosophy?
What is philosophy? Is there any point in studying philosophy, or is it a useless subject? What are the different branches of philosophy - what's the difference between aestheitcs and ethics? What's the difference between metaphysics and epistemology?
