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Criminal Law: Rules and Theory

Actus Reus, Mens Rea and Coincidence

  • 4 things to know
  • Paper 1

Overview

Recall questions on the forms actus reus takes, involuntary acts, legal causation, result and conduct crimes, oblique intention, recklessness and negligence, transferred malice, strict liability and the coincidence requirement.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Your recallNot started
Key term

How can actus reus be satisfied through conduct?

Key term

What must be proved to establish legal causation?

Key term

Beyond foresight of risk, what else must be shown for subjective recklessness?

Process

When can an omission be the guilty act, what is a state of affairs, and must the act be voluntary?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    What Latin term describes the 'guilty act' element required for criminal liability?

    Model answer

    Actus reus

  2. 2

    How can actus reus be satisfied through conduct?

    Model answer

    Through positive acts — deliberate physical actions performed by the defendant

  3. 3

    How can an omission form the actus reus of a crime?

    Model answer

    A failure to act can constitute actus reus where the defendant was under a legal duty to act

  4. 4

    What is meant by a 'state of affairs' as a form of actus reus?

    Model answer

    A situation where the defendant's circumstances or condition constitute the prohibited element, rather than any specific act or omission

  5. 5

    Why cannot an involuntary act form the basis of criminal liability?

    Model answer

    For an act to constitute actus reus, it must be voluntary; involuntary acts lack the element of conscious control required for criminal responsibility

  6. 6

    What must be proved to establish legal causation?

    Model answer

    That the defendant's act was an operating and substantial cause of the prohibited consequence

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