3 Secondary Offender

The secondary offender is the participant who does not personally execute the offence's actus but whose contribution makes him liable: the abetter/instigator and the aider, the conspirator whose plan others execute. The doctrine of accomplice liability (complicity) — its two elements:1. The actus of complicity: aiding, abetting, counselling or procuring — practical assistance, encouragement or facilitation before or at the crime (presence can suffice where it signals encouragement — the gang at the assault — but mere passive presence is not complicity);2. The mens of complicity: knowledge + (in the orthodox view) intent to assist the crime (the purpose/intent vs. mere-knowledge debate: giving a knife knowing it will be used to kill vs. intending the killing — the National Coal Board-type line; most systems require intent to assist, with knowledge of the essential facts).The liability rule (the complicity prize): the secondary offender is liable for the principal'scrime as committed (the same offence) — derivative liability: it depends on (i) a principal offence actually committed (the classic rule; modern qualifications where the agent is innocent but the instigator proceeds), and (ii) within the scope of what the secondary party intended or, under the common-plan doctrine, could foresee (the guard at the robbery liable for the foreseen murder, not for the unforeshadowed spree).Abettor vs. principal in sentencing: the Code's tradition punishes abettors…