Introduction
Murder is not provided for in any statute in England or Wales, with its definition emanating from case law. The definition of murder will be counteracted into two elements, mens rea and actus reus. This transient article can concentrate on these 2 elements of murder. Firstly, a brief insight into the two ideas can be needed. This will equip the reader with the relevant understanding for the a lot of critical half of this article, that being the evolution of these two concepts. Lastly, this article can specialize in the long run of the definition of murder, specializing in proposals for a a lot of acceptable definition of the crime of murder.
Actus Reus and Mens rea
The concept of actus reus focuses on the act of all criminal offences, not just murder. As stated in the introduction, the actus reus of common law offences can be provided by the case law. The act itself can not represent an offence. There should be a mental element to a crime; this is called mens rea. An example of this is able to be simply falling over a dog and kicking a dog. Whilst the act can be the same, and indeed the result, it is the intention that changes the circumstances into a criminal offence.
The concept of mens rea refers back to the mental element of any crime. This definition will change from crime to crime. The main contributory to most crimes will be that of intention per the instance above. If these 2 parts exist, then a criminal offence can are committed.
Evolution of the two concepts
The primary definition of the actus reus for murder was offer by Coke as 'unlawfully killing a affordable person who is in being and below the kings peace'. This definition emanated from the seventeenth century and wasn't equipped to house medical advances the followed the inception of this definition.
The most problematic limb of this two half definition is mens rea. Most of the literature that has addressed this space has centered on the definition of intention, and a lot of importantly, the foresight of a person accused of such a crime. An example of this may be the classical illustration given in most text books. Here someone wants to amplify a plane. The accused contends that that was his solely aim, his only intention. But, the plane is filled with folks on board; if the plane explodes then the individuals on board will be killed. Someone's foresight of their actions, thus, plays a crucial role. The case law on the world of mens rea has been intensive, with a definition finally being settled upon in a House of Lords case. (It is not in the scope of this temporary article to explore the area totally, although the citation for this case is R v Woolin 1996).
Proposals for the Future
The Law Commission has proposed a definition for the mens rea element, although this has not been followed up. A additional recent proposal has been place forward by the Nathan Committee, though this solely slightly alters the law at the present moment, though the requires a a lot of purposeful definition that is provided by statute seems additional distant than ever.
Conclusion
As has been shown by this transient article, the offence of common law murder is an extremely complicated area. The initial components are based in Latin and have there foundations within the seventeenth century. The evolution of those two concepts has been slow and cumbersome; leading to accusations that the sole reason for this can be that the subject is just too emotive. Though the definition is currently additional settled, this space is crying out for a definition provided for by statute like that provided for within the United States.
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