The Manifestation of Recklessness: From Mens Rea to Actus Reus

Background Recklessness involves an act conducted by a person who has the legal capacity and is aware of the substantial risk the act may give rise to. Such an act may assume these characteristics of Recklessness: a) recklessness is double-dimensional; b) the mental aspect of the Recklessness is prioritized. Materials and Methods This research has been done using library resources in a descriptive-analytical manner. Ethical Considerations Honesty and fidelity in writing the text have been observed. Findings Aiming to study the status of the Recklessness under English and Iranian Law, the present paper elaborates upon the Iranian and English Law and the Articles wherein Recklessness is at stake and, after comparing them in detail, it concludes that the difference between these two systems concerning Recklessness lies in their different interpretation and definition of this concept; denoting actus reus under Iranian and mens rea under English Law. Such a difference has led to adopting different criminal policies in dealing with the offences arising from Recklessness in Iran and England. Attention paid to mental aspects of the Recklessness in English law accentuates the mental element's dominance. On the contrary, emphasizing the Recklessness's physical element has led to extreme laxity under Iranian Law. Being an imported word under Iranian Law, mens rea has been wrongly translated as such that it accentuates only the physical aspect of an offence and fails to account for the mental aspect. Conclusion The present paper attempts at clarification of such a critical mistake under Iranian Law which has led to the criminalization of those behaviors which would have never been criminalized had it occurred in England owing to due considerations given to the mental aspect of the offence under discussion and finally suggests a revision concerning the treatment of this word which may lead to critical amendments of Iranian Law; the recommendation including that the same be rendered as such that it simultaneously denote 'subjective typical' criterion as well as 'objective typical' criterion.