LS202 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Fundamental Justice, Criminal Law Of Canada, Culpable Homicide
Document Summary
January 28th 2015: mens rea or the fault element. An act is not necessarily a guilty act unless the accused has the necessary guilty mind. Typically, mens rea is concerned with the consequences of the prohibited actus reus. Jurisprudence: fault requirement (coincidence of mens res with the prohibited act) ensures the criminal law does not risk punishing morally innocent. On the other hand, the criminal law much denounce and punish moral guilt. A broad distinction is often drawn between subjective and objective fault elements. A subjective or mental element requires the crown to establish that the accused had the required guilty knowledge in relation to the specified circumstances or consequences. Protection: the function of subjective mens rea is to prevent the conviction of the morally innocent - those who do not understand or intend the consequences of their acts. Moral guilt: the criminal law must denounce and punish behaviour intended to achieve a prohibited result.