Two principles of Criminal Law?

[hello_kitty]

Are the two principles of criminal law, actus reus and mens rea?
Or

is it that 1) THe prosecution has the burden of proving that the accused is guilty

and 2) The accused is presumed innocent until proven guilty?

Thanks!

[eeps]

Yeh, that's right. Actus reus is the actual crime being committed; Mens rea is the intention of committing the crime.

[hello_kitty]

Oh okay Thanks!

[nacho]

If by principle you mean "two things which must be satisfied" for the act to be considered a crime, then yes, they are

[Hellhole]

Mens rea is the intention to commit a crime, yes.

To add more weight to your answer, I'd suggest looking up what's called subjective testing in criminal cases (objective testing is usually used by civil cases). In case you can't find it, the presumption made by a court is that the accused did not intend to commit the crime and using all the facts and opinions within the case, the court can use subjective testing to help discover (to an extent) what the accused intended to do (as an example, the difference between manslaughter and murder is intent and subjective testing helps to unfold the intentions of the defending party).

[saaaaaam]

I'd call the burden of proof and assumption of innocence a 'feature' rather than a 'principle' as it differs from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, as you'll discover in unit four.