Jurisprudence

by Sir John W. Salmond

1. Actus non facit reum nisi mens sit rea.

Leges Henrici Primi, V. 28. (Thorpe’s Ancient Laws and Institutes of England, I. 511.) Coke’s Third Institute, f. 6.

The act alone does not make the doer of it guilty, unless it is done with a guilty mind. Material without formal wrongdoing is not a ground of liability. The presence either of wrongful intent or of culpable negligence is a necessary condition of responsibility. See §§ 127, 132, 145.