Traditional Mens Rea ("Common Law")

As noted above in Section 4.2.2, courts and authors sometimes recognize two main approaches to criminal law, the MPC approach and the common law approach. The latter, common law approach, is a confusing term. For our purposes, it is a catch-all for traditional approaches, some old, some newer, that differ from the MPC. 

Whatever else it means, most associate the common law approach with the two mens rea categories of general intent and specific intent. To the extent that this course will ask you to understand the difference between the MPC and the traditional, common law approach to criminal law, it will largely relate to mens rea and to the use of these two terms--specific and general intent. 

But as we will see below, the label and category of specific intent crimes is also very much a part of the MPC. The MPC defines crimes like burglary and theft just as does the common law, using a specific intent element (though avoiding that precise term). 

Indeed, ultimately, the only real difference between the MPC and the common law approach involves mistake of fact, which we will consider after the initial materials on general and specific intent.