Elizabeth Papp Kamali, Felony and the Guilty Mind in Medieval England

In her book Felony and the Guilty Mind in Medieval England, Kamali examines the medieval understanding of mens rea, or a guilty mind, in determining culpability, a concept which is certainly familiar in Anglo-American law today. In Kamali’s book, mens rea encompasses “a guilty mind, vicious will, immorality of motive or simply a morally culpable state of mind” (p. 4), a wider reading of the concept than the modern one, which is limited to the mental state of the defendant vis à vis the social harm element in the offense (Dressler and Garvey). With a close reading of case records and expansive use of multiple genres of medieval writing, Kamali illustrates how the concept of mens rea functioned in the medieval English courts, how important it was for juries when determining culpability, and what exactly having a “guilty mind” comprised, be it mere intent or something “more damnable” (p. 7).

Criminal law · Criminology · Culpability · Expansive · Immorality · Mens rea · Morality · Political science · Psychoanalysis · Reading (process) · State (computer science) · Law · Medieval Literature and History · Philosophy · Psychology