A violation of the law can result from acting against the letter or spirit of a statute, with two components: mens rea (mentality) and actus reus (action). Breaking a law against cocaine possession can occur through knowing possession or intentionally avoiding knowledge, with mens rea being awareness and intent to possess and actus reus being actual possession. Genuine ignorance of possession may not satisfy mens rea.
Violation of the law is any act that violates an existing statute. The violation may result from the person acting expressly contrary to the letter of the law as written and interpreted, or it may result from any action contrary to the spirit of the law when it has been approved by the legislature of the jurisdiction. There are generally two components to a violation of the law. The first is the mentality of the actor, referred to as the mens rea. The second is the actual action taken leading to a violation, called the actus reus.
The most obvious way a person can commit a violation of the law is by committing an action that expressly violates the letter of the law. Consider a law that states “no person shall knowingly possess any amount of cocaine.” If a man buys a gram of cocaine from a drug dealer as soon as he receives the substance, he is violating the statute because he will be in possession of the drug knowing full well what it is.
Also, someone can commit a violation of the law through violating the general spirit of the law, which is the practical intent of the legislative body at the time it enacted the statute. In the present example, the spirit of the law that criminalizes the knowing possession of cocaine is to discourage the use of harmful drugs in society. If the same man goes to someone who he’s not sure is a trafficker, hands him money without saying anything, and takes a package that he can’t be sure is cocaine without looking at it, then he’s not expressly breaking the letter of the law because he should know that the package contains cocaine to do this. However, by intentionally avoiding knowing that the received item is cocaine, he violated the spirit of the law. So it’s still a violation of the law.
There are typically two requirements for a violation of the law: mens rea and actus reus. Continuing the use of the cocaine possession statute, the mens rea would be the awareness that the object is cocaine and the intentional intent to possess it. Actus reus is actual possession of the drug, regardless of knowledge. If a man picks up a bag containing a white powdery substance and is not genuinely aware that the substance is cocaine, it is unlikely that he will be found to have committed a violation of the law. While he satisfies the actus reus component by physically possessing the drug, he does not satisfy the mens rea component due to his genuine ignorance that the substance is cocaine.
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