First, the accused should commit an act which is deemed by society to be criminal, or actus reus . Second, the accused will must have the requisite malicious intent to do a criminal act, or mens rea . However, for so called “strict legal responsibility” crimes, an actus reus is enough. Criminal techniques of the civil law custom distinguish between intention in the broad sense , and negligence.
As one legal historian wrote, “Justinian consciously seemed again to the golden age of Roman law and aimed to restore it to the peak it had reached three centuries before.” The Justinian Code remained in drive in the East until the fall of the Byzantine Empire. Western Europe, meanwhile, relied on a combination of the Theodosian Code and Germanic customary law until the Justinian Code was rediscovered in the eleventh century, and students at the University of Bologna used it to interpret …