Is There an Act Requirement in the Criminal Law?

Abstract

No one should be punished except for something she does. She shouldn't be punished for what wasn't done at all; she shouldn't be punished for what someone else does; she shouldn't be punished for being sort of person she is, unless it up to her whether or not she a person of that sort. She shouldn't be punished for being blond or short, for example, because it isn't up to her whether she blond or short. Our conduct what justifies punishing us. One way of expressing this point to say that there a voluntary act requirement in criminal law. There a view of this voluntary act requirement that I will call traditional view in common law.' One of most significant features of traditional view that it takes willing or volition to be key to voluntariness. Sir James Stephen, for example, states that a voluntary act is a motion or group of motions accompanied or preceded by volition and directed toward some object.2 According to Charles Torcia, [a]n act 'voluntary' when bodily movement product of conscious effort or determination.3 And Arnold Loewy says of his usage that the term voluntary simply means that muscular contraction [is] willed.4