Actus Me Invito Factus Non Est Meus Actus

After a guest post by my brother turned out to be one of the most popular pages on this site, I had hoped that the classics scholar was going to be a regular contributor on this site. Alas, my no good brother has turned out to be a complete slacker with better ways to spend his time. So I am left with doing these things myself.

My legal maxim for this week is Actus me invito factus non est meus actus – or “An Act done against my will is not my act.”  Although the maxim does not exactly roll off your tongue, I like it because it conveys the notion of general intent (as opposed to specific intent). An explanation you see again and again in the D.C. Model Jury Instructions is the following:  “Intentionally means that the defendant acted voluntarily, on purpose and not by mistake or accident.”

And it didn’t take me 2100 words to say that.