actus reus

Literal translation

guilty act

Legal meaning

Actus reus refers to the external, physical element of an offence: the prohibited conduct, together with any required circumstance or consequence defined by the crime. In South African criminal law, liability generally requires proof of both the unlawful act or omission and the necessary fault element, although South African lawyers more often analyse crimes through conduct, unlawfulness, causation and culpability than by using this Latin label as a primary doctrinal category. The term is therefore mainly a comparative or explanatory shorthand when discussing the objective element of criminal liability.

Examples

• The State must prove the actus reus of the offence before questions of intention or negligence arise.
• Counsel argued that the accused’s omission did not satisfy the actus reus required for the charge.
• In criminal law teaching, actus reus is used as a shorthand for the prohibited conduct element of an offence.

Cases citing this term

• 🇿🇦 Maqubela v The State
  Supreme Court of Appeal of South Africa· 2017-09-29· 821/2015

  natural death). In other words, the medical evidence did not establish that the \u003cmark>actus\u003c/mark> \u003cmark>reus\u003c/mark> of murder had been committed. (b) Nonetheless, by relying on the appellant's considerable, demonstrated

• 🇿🇼 The State v Irvene Katsande and Moyana Mudziwepasi and Thomas Mudziwepasi and Felix Sunday
  High Court (Harare)· CRB HRE. P 4056-59/16
• 🇿🇼 The State v William Mangwende
  High Court (Harare)· CRB 568-13
• 🇿🇼 The State v Sibangilizwe Moyo
  Other Courts
• 🇿🇼 Tawanda Nyamande v The State
  High Court (Harare)· CA 161/20
• 🇿🇦 Negondeni v the State
  Supreme Court of Appeal of South Africa· 2015-09-29· 00093/2015

  the commission of the offence have been met. They are the questions of unlawfulness, \u003cmark>actus\u003c/mark> \u003cmark>reus\u003c/mark> and mens rea. These are conclusions of law. If the court is satisfied that

• 🇿🇼 State v Nkosiyabo Ngwenya and State v Kelvin Nkawu
  High Court
• 🇿🇼 Munashe Maphosa v The State
  Supreme Court
• 🇿🇼 The State v Anesu Agnes Chikerema
  High Court (Harare)· CRB R 292/17
• 🇿🇦 Ephraim Phallo and Others v The State
  Supreme Court of Appeal of South Africa· 1999-11-19· 354/98

  REPORTABLE IN THE SUPREME COURT OF APPEAL OF SOUTH AFRICA Case Number

Live search across the public SA case corpus. Results may include false positives where the same Latin lexeme appears in a different context.

Areas of law