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you are here: > United Australia Military Code
> Article 18
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4. Military
responsibility
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| Article 18-Concept of military responsibility | ||
| 18.1 | Concept of military responsibility | |
| Military responsibility is the degree to which a person is fully, partly or not liable for the full effect of the law in regards to any and all charges of offence brought against them. | ||
| While many nations, states and historical legal opinions exist for the nature of military responsibility, for the purpose of this present military code, military responsibility is defined as: | ||
| A person shall be fully responsible for their actions, regardless of temporary or permanent state of mental health and therefore shall be subject to full military responsibility. | ||
| 18.2 | State of mental health, comprehension of actions and sentencing | |
| While the state of mental health and/or comprehension of a person as to their actions is not permitted to be considered a reduction in anyway to military responsibility, such circumstances are permitted to be taken into account in the sentencing limits and options should a conviction be given. | ||
| 18.3 | actus reus and mens rea in the context of military responsibility | |
| Actus reus (Latin for "guilty act") and mens rea (Latin for "guilty mind") are two essential elements to a historic common law proposition that still dominates the interpretation of criminal responsibility for many nations, namely: "actus non facit reum nisi mens sit rea" which in Latin means "an act does not make a person guilty unless (their) mind is also guilty". | ||
| The assumption of this historic statement of legal interpretation is that in order for military responsibility to be valid it requires proof of fault, culpability or blameworthiness both in behaviour and mind. While modern military statutes and intrepretations now recognize negligence as a mitigating factor in many offences, this assumed bond between both action and mind remains a condition of thinking underpinning many criminal law systems. | ||
| 18.4 | "actus non facit reum nisi mens sit rea" does not apply in order to establish military responsibility | |
| Unde this Code, "actus non facit reum nisi mens sit rea" does not apply in order to establish military responsibility. It is sufficient that the facts of actus reus ("guilt acts") have been established in order to obtain a conviction for all offences. Mens rea may only be used in the context of (a) level of intent, therefore guilty mind and (b) mitigating circumstances in sentencing when it can be shown a person is suffering severe, non self-inflicted and permanent mental incapacity. | ||
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