Main Content
Model Penal Code
The lawyers, judges, and professors who gathered to write the Model Penal Code initially intended to write a Restatement of the Law, similar to torts or contracts. But they discovered criminal law in the states to be a mess, especially when it came to mens rea. They therefore decided to write a model code instead, model statutes that drew upon existing law, but improved and rationalized it.
The MPC came to solve particular problems. The sections below will detail the problems with existing state law concerning mens rea before showing how the MPC tried to fix those problems. Many states adopted the MPC mens rea provisions, Section 2.02, almost verbatim. Others, like Colorado, adopted it in part.
This book, and all H2O books, are Creative Commons licensed for sharing and re-use with the exception of certain excerpts. Any excerpts from the Restatements of the Law, Principles of the Law, and the Model Penal Code are copyright by The American Law Institute. Excerpts are reproduced with permission, not as part of a Creative Commons license.