Introduction

Murder is not provided for in any statute in England or Wales, with its definition emanating from case law. The definition of murder can be broken down into two elements, mens rea and actus reus. This brief article will focus on these two elements of murder. Firstly, a brief insight into the two concepts will be needed. This will equip the reader with the relevant understanding for the more critical part of this article, that being the evolution of these two concepts. Lastly, this article will focus on the future of the definition of murder, focusing on proposals for a more appropriate 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 will be provided by the case law. The act itself will not constitute an offence. There must be a mental element to a crime; this is known as mens rea. An example of this would be simply falling over a dog and kicking a dog. Whilst the act will 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 to the mental element of any crime. This definition can change from crime to crime. The main contributory to most crimes will be that of intention per the example above. If these two elements exist, then a criminal offence will have been committed.

Evolution of the two concepts

The first definition of the actus reus for murder was give by Coke as