1.3 Types of Criminal Liability

Relative liability (fault-based): the ordinary liability — punished for the BLAME: the intentional, reckless or negligent wrong (the mens rea ladder of Unit 4). The default: no crime without a guilty mind (actus non facit reum nisi mens sit rea — Unit 3); Strict liability: liability WITHOUT proof of fault — the regulatory offences (adulterated food, weights-and-measures, pollution) where the public-welfare aim dispenses with mens rea; the defences' narrowness (no mistake, but no-liability where the act was truly involuntary); the critique and the boundaries (strict liability read narrowly — the presumption of mens rea); Vicarious liability: the one punished for ANOTHER's act — the employer's answer in the civil world (LAW 311's doctrine) reaching criminal law only where the statute expressly provides or the company's structure demands (the corporate liability of Unit 6); the general rule: criminal liability is PERSONAL (each actor answers for own acts).