Philosophy 2080 Lecture Notes - Immanence, Sleepwalking, Circular Reasoning

• School: Western University
• Department: Philosophy
• Course: Philosophy 2080
• Professor: James Hildebrand

Document Summary

Mistake of fact: the accused person may have an honestly held but mistaken belief in a set of circumstances that would make him lack mens rea. For example, the taking possession of a thing that the accused thought belonged to him would mean he did not have the necessary guilty mind for theft. We will see this defence arise in sexual assault cases where an accused person may raise the issue that he believed the complainant was consenting. Automatism: according to justice laforest in parks, being an automaton means a person lacks the voluntariness requirement of the actus reus. The accused person is not acting voluntarily at the time of the offence, it can occur when an accused is sleepwalking, having an epileptic seizure, or suffering from a concussion. As you recall from parks, these states are different from what is understood as a disease of the mind.