Actus reus
Categories: Legal terms | Latin legal phrases | Criminal law
Part of the common law series
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The actus reus — sometimes called the external elements of a crime — is the criminal act which, in combination with the mens rea, produces criminal liability in common law based criminal law jurisdictions such as the United States, Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom.
According to criminal jurisprudence, there must be a concurrence of both actus reus and mens rea for a crime to have been committed.
The phrase derives from a quotation from Edward Coke actus non facit reum nisi mens sit rea,1 which roughly translated means "an act does not make someone a criminal unless (their) mind is guilty."
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External elements
The external elements of a crime generally come in four broad categories. There is the conduct, circumstances, consequence, and cause. The wording of charge is made up of any number of these types of elements. For example, in the crime of Burglary ("breaking and entering the dwelling of another during the night with the intention to commit a felony therein") has the prohibited conduct of "breaking" and "entering", and the circumstance "of another" and "during the night".
The prosecution must prove all theses elements beyond a reasonable doubt in order to establish the actus reus.
When the charge contains a "consequence" element there must be an additional "causation" element to connect the conduct to the consequence.
Omission
At common law, the failure to act does not attract criminal liability. Typically, an act described in a charge is assumed to be a positive act. This presumption is rebutted where the criminal provision explicitly states that that the act consists of any "act or omission". Equally, there can often be provisions or legislation that imposes a duty upon the public.
See also
References
1 Coke's Institutes, Part III (1797 edition) chapter 1, folio 10.