From: "Perry E. Metzger" <perry@imsi.com>
Date: Wed, 21 Sep 94 06:22:25 PDT
To: Hal <hfinney@shell.portal.com>
Subject: Re: On the crime bill and remailers
In-Reply-To: <199409210004.RAA16538@jobe.shell.portal.com>
Message-ID: <9409211321.AA11566@snark.imsi.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



Hal says:
> > The old saw "ignorance of the law is no excuse" is basically accurate.
[...]
> I don't know how true this is in general, but my research into the
> arms export question indicated otherwise.

Congress can, in the way it words a law, specifically make it a
requirement that you knew an act was illegal. However, 99% of the
time, "ignorance is no excuse" holds.

Similarly, on some laws, the requirement of intent to commit the act
is unnecessary. Mens rea is not needed, for example, to be found
guilty of speeding -- you need merely have committed the act
regardless of whether you intended to travel at a particular speed.

Perry