ABSTRACT
The Crimes Act 1961 (NZ) is the general provision that governs modes of participatory liability in New Zealand. The basis for holding companies criminally liable is also touched upon in this chapter. It must be established that the secondary party knew that the principal intended doing actions that constitute the actus reus of an offence, with the level of mens rea required for that offence. Evidence of a commitment to the common purpose In New Zealand it is no longer possible to argue that liability under s 66 should be built on liability under s 66 in respect of the crime that forms the common purpose. If the issue is what the accessory subjectively foresaw then this approach would conflate the mens rea for the common purpose doctrine with the requirement that the incidental crime occur in its 'prosecution' because the tests for the two requirements are identical.
