LAW 534 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: The Employer, Dofasco, De Minimis
Document Summary
The actus reus in regulatory offences: a risk-based system. Recall: strict liability has 2 components: 1) actus reus commission of the prohibited act, 2) due diligence taking all reasonable precautions to avoid the harm. Remember, also: strict liability offences are the most common type of regulatory offence. Important to understand next two chapters are, therefore, related to strict liability offences: chapter 3 actus reus, chapter 4 due diligence. Categories of offence by looking at specificity of actus reus. Intersection of criminal code and regulatory law jurisprudence. Four categories listed in text book (will look at each of these in turn): precise codified standards, specific prescriptions with limited site-specific assessment, general prohibitions with specific balancing, reasonable person tests. Regulatory standards can be viewed as being on a spectrum this gives courts varying degrees of discretion in the interpretation of those standards. Highly specific perhaps even has empirical standards to be met.