Statutory Offence
Definition
An offence created by legislation rather than common law, where the text of the statute usually states which fault element, if any, attaches to each part of the offence.
Related terms
- Absolute Liability
- A stricter form of no-fault liability where even a reasonable mistake of fact gives no defence, reserved for a narrow set of...
- Actus Reus
- The guilty act: the physical conduct, the consequence, and the surrounding circumstances that the law forbids. Without a voluntary act there is...
- Concurrence Principle
- The rule that the guilty act and the guilty mind must exist at the same point in time for liability to attach.
- General Defences
- The statutory list of defences, such as infancy, unsoundness of mind, intoxication, mistake, necessity and private defence, that can excuse or negate...
- Mens Rea
- The guilty mind: intention, knowledge, recklessness, or negligence as required by the section charged. BNS Section 3 sets out general explanations of...
- Strict Liability
- A rule that convicts on proof of the act alone for at least one element of an offence, while still allowing a...
- Vicarious Liability
- A rule making an employer answerable for a wrongful act an employee commits in the course of employment, without proof that the...