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11 Crim. L.Q. 154 (1968-1969)
The Defence of Impossibility and Offences of Strict Liability

handle is hein.journals/clwqrty11 and id is 168 raw text is: The Defence of Impossibility and Offences of Strict Liability R. S. Clark* Section 15.10 of the New York Revised Penal Law of 1965 which became effective on September 1, 1967 provides: The minimal requirement for criminal liability is the per- formance by a person of conduct which includes a voluntary act or the omission to perform an act which he is physically capable of performing. If such conduct is all that is required for the commission of a particular offense, or if an offense or some material element thereof does not require a culpable mental state on the part of ,the actor, such offense is one of strict liability. If a culpable mental state on -the part of -the actor is required with respect to every material element of an offense, such offense is one of mental culpability. (Italics added.) Culpable mental state is defined in s. 15.05 to refer to acts done or omitted intentionally, knowingly, recklessly or with criminal negligence. The aim of the section, like that of s. 2.01 (1) of the Model Penal Code, Proposed Official Draft from which it is derived is to avoid the injustice of a crime or offence defining liability in the absence of either mens rea or actus reus. The classic such case is of course the decision of the English Court of Criminal Appeal in R. v. Larsonneur' where a woman who arrived back in England in the custody of the Irish police was convicted on a charge that she being an alien to whom leave to land . . . has been refused *B.A., LL.M. (V.U.W.), LL.M. (Columbia), Lecturer in Law, Victoria Uni- versity of 'Wellington, New Zealand. '(1933), 24 Cr. App. R. 74 (C.C.A.). 154

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