June 16, 2016:

1. Define:
Mens Rea
Actus Rea
2. Offenses punishable under penal laws
Culpa
Dolo
3. Requisites
4. Motive vs. Intent
5. General Criminal Intent vs. Specific
Criminal Intent
6. When motive becomes material?
7. General characteristics of Criminal Law
8. Principle of extraterritoriality
9. Who may incur criminal liability?
10.Praeter Intentionem

Mens rea
The technical term mens rea is sometimes
referred to in common parlance as the
gravamen of the offense. To a layman,
that is what you call the bullseye of the
crime. This term is used synonymously
with criminal or deliberate intent, but that
is not exactly correct.
Mens rea of the crime depends upon the
elements of the crime. You can only detect
the mens rea of a crime by knowing the
particular crime committed. Without
reference to a particular crime, this term is
meaningless. For example, in theft, the
mens rea is the taking of the property of
another with intent to gain. In falsification,
the mens rea is the effecting of the forgery
with intent to pervert the truth. It is not
merely writing something that is not true;
the intent to pervert the truth must follow
the performance of the act.
In criminal law, we sometimes have to
consider the crime on the basis of intent.
For example, attempted or frustrated
homicide is distinguished from physical
injuries only by the intent to kill.
Attempted rape is distinguished from acts
of lasciviousness by the intent to have
sexual intercourse. In robbery, the mens
rea is the taking of the property of another
coupled with the employment of
intimidation or violence upon persons or
things; remove the employment of force or
intimidation and it is not robbery anymore.
Culpa
- Criminal negligence

Not a basis of liability, unless the

special law punishes an omission

Dolo
- The deliberate intent otherwise
referred to as criminal intent, and
must be coupled with freedom of
action and intelligence on the part of
the offender as to the act done by
him.
Requisites:
1. Criminal intent
2. Freedom of action
3. Intelligence
Requisites to Felony:
There must be:
1. An act or omission;
2. Punishable by the RPC; and,
3. The act is performed or the omission
incurred by means of dolo or culpa
Distinction between intent and motive
Intent is demonstrated by the use of a
particular means to bring about a desired
result it is not a state of mind or a reason
for committing a crime.
On the other hand, motive implies motion.
It is the moving power which impels one to
do an act. When there is motive in the
commission of a crime, it always comes
before the intent. But a crime may be
committed without motive.
If the crime is intentional, it cannot be
committed without intent. Intent is
manifested by the instrument used by the
offender. The specific criminal intent
becomes material if the crime is to be
distinguished from the attempted or
frustrated stage. For example, a husband
came home and found his wife in a
pleasant conversation with a former suitor.
Thereupon, he got a knife. The moving
force is jealousy. The intent is the resort to
the knife, so that means he is desirous to
kill the former suitor. Even if the offender
states that he had no reason to kill the
victim, this is not criminal intent. Criminal
intent is the means resorted to by him that
brought about the killing. If we equate
intent as a state of mind, many would
escape criminal liability.
In a case where mother and son were living
in the same house, and the son got angry
and strangled his mother, the son, when
prosecuted for parricide, raised the defense
that he had no intent to kill his mother. It
was held that criminal intent applies on the
strangulation of the vital part of the body.
Criminal intent is on the basis of the act,
not on the basis if what the offender says.
Look into motive to determine the proper
crime which can be imputed to the
accused. If a judge was killed, determine if

the killing has any relation to the official

functions of the judge in which case the
crime would be direct assault complexed
with murder/homicide, not the other way
around. If it has no relation, the crime is
simply homicide or murder.

international agreements and practice.

The territory of the country is not
limited to the land where its sovereignty
resides but includes also its maritime
and interior waters as well as its
atmosphere.

Omission is the inaction, the failure to

perform a positive duty which he is bound
to do. There must be a law requiring the
doing or performing of an act.

Terrestrial jurisdiction is the jurisdiction

exercised over land.

General criminal intent is presumed

from the mere doing of a wrong act. This
does not require proof. The burden is upon
the wrong doer to prove that he acted
without such criminal intent.

Fluvial jurisdiction is the jurisdiction

exercised over maritime and interior
waters.
Aerial jurisdiction is the jurisdiction
exercised over the atmosphere.
PROSPECTIVITY

Specific criminal intent is not presumed

because it is an ingredient or element of a
crime, like intent to kill in the crimes of
attempted or frustrated homicide/
parricide/ murder. The prosecution has the
burden of proving the same.
Characteristics of Criminal Law
1. Generality
2. Territoriality
3. Prospectivity.
GENERALITY
Generality of criminal law means that
the criminal law of the country governs
all persons within the country regardless
of their race, belief, sex, or creed.
However, it is subject to certain
exceptions brought about by
international agreement. Ambassadors,
chiefs of states and other diplomatic
officials are immune from the
application of penal laws when they are
in the country where they are assigned.
Note that consuls are not diplomatic
officers. This includes consul-general,
vice-consul or any consul in a foreign
country, who are therefore, not immune
to the operation or application of the
penal law of the country where they are
assigned. Consuls are subject to the
penal laws of the country where they
are assigned.
It has no reference to territory.
Whenever you are asked to explain this,
it does not include territory. It refers to
persons that may be governed by the
penal law.

This is also called irretrospectivity.

Acts or omissions will only be subject to
a penal law if they are committed after
a penal law had already taken effect.
Vice-versa, this act or omission which
has been committed before the
effectivity of a penal law could not be
penalized by such penal law because
penal laws operate only prospectively.
In some textbooks, an exemption is said
to exist when the penal law is favorable
to the offender, in which case it would
have retroactive application; provided
that the offender is not a habitual
delinquent and there is no provision in
the law against its retroactive
application.
The exception where a penal law may
be given retroactive application is true
only with a repealing law. If it is an
original penal law, that exception can
never operate. What is contemplated
by the exception is that there is an
original law and there is a repealing law
repealing the original law. It is the
repealing law that may be given
retroactive application to those who
violated the original law, if the repealing
penal law is more favorable to the
offender who violated the original law.
If there is only one penal law, it can
never be given retroactive effect.
Rule of prospectivity also applies to
administrative rulings and circulars

TERRITORIALITY
Proximate cause
Territoriality means that the penal laws
of the country have force and effect
only within its territory. It cannot
penalize crimes committed outside the
same. This is subject to certain
exceptions brought about by

Article 4, paragraph 1 presupposes that

the act done is the proximate cause of
the resulting felony. It must be the
direct, natural, and logical consequence
of the felonious act.

Proximate cause is that cause which sets

into motion other causes and which
unbroken by any efficient supervening
cause produces a felony without which
such felony could not have resulted. He
who is the cause of the cause is the evil of
the cause. As a general rule, the offender
is criminally liable for all the consequences
of his felonious act, although not intended,
if the felonious act is the proximate cause
of the felony or resulting felony. A
proximate cause is not necessarily the
immediate cause. This may be a cause
which is far and remote from the
consequence which sets into motion other
causes which resulted in the felony.

Wrongful act done be different from

what was intended
What makes the first paragraph of Article 4
confusing is the qualification although the
wrongful act done be different from what
was intended. There are three situations
contemplated under paragraph 1 of Article
4:
1) Aberratio ictus or mistake in the
blow;
2) Error in personae or mistake in
identity; and
3) Praeter intentionem or where the
consequence exceeded the intention