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Casebook Read Credits
Tanaka Criminal Law Casebook
Section 5
1 hour + 4 links

Actus Reus

Elizabeth Tanaka

Actus reus, or the act requirement, is the first part of culpability in criminal law.  The cases in this section will introduce you to the act requirement.  (You will meet the second part, mens rea, in the next section.) 

In short, almost every crime must have an act, but defining that act can be tricky.  Sometimes something that seems like an act is not an act; other times, something that does not seem like an act is one. 

Notice distinctions between voluntary and involuntary acts, and not the distinctions between conduct and the results of conduct.  Consider why the court reaches the decision it does in each case, and what its decision says about its conception of blameworthiness.

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