The Mens Rea Enigma: Observations on the Role of Motive in the Criminal Law Past and Present

Early in the English legal tradition, the idea arose that criminal liability entails some mental activity on the part of the offender relating to the proscribed conduct. By the time of Coke, the maxim "actus non facit reum nisi mens sit rea" (an act does not make one guilty unless his mind is guilty) had become well ingrained in the common law, and it remains a central precept of Anglo-American criminal law today.