Men’s Rea
The Principle of mens rea is the ultimate evaluation of criminal conduct and, because of that, it is deeply involved in theories of punishment, mental disease, negligence, strict liability and other current issues. Its paramount role in penal theory also results from the fact that mens rea is the fusion ("concurrence") of the elementary functions of intelligence and volition. "Only" its projection into reality, its actualization in the external world, is required to form criminal conduct, and that complex subject needs and receives the maximum attention in the professional literature. If any distinction is to be drawn inter pares, the crown, therefore, must surely go to the principle of mens rea.
This, of course, presupposes that one is not generalizing over all "penal laws." In that all-embracing reach, one can only say something to the effect that mens rea is the mental state exhibited in any conduct or behavior which violates any "penal law." This, however, says very little about any mens rea. Indeed, where "penal laws" proscribe negligent harm-doing and behavior "at peril," the above sort of definition is a formality which may mislead by suggesting that nothing more can be said in defining mens rea. But if one attends to the judicial opinions and to the persistent efforts of scholars to solve relevant problems, it is evident, despite such formulations as the above, that mens rea is intended to refer to actual distinctive states of mind. That is certainly the meaning of the term in the ancient maxim, actus non facit reum nisi mens sit rea; and the connotation "blameworthy" has played a great role in the history of penal law. In that history, mens rea is meaningful in relation to harm-doing, and to characterize mens rea as "evil mind" or "evil will" makes sense only if actual harm, sought or hazarded, is held in view...........
