ABSTRACT
While the enlarged doctrine of mens rea had displaced the presumption of voluntariness, the evidential presumption of intention, by reference to “natural consequences”, also disappeared from the narrative. Heightened judicial focus in the narrowest of contexts, murder and “indirect intention”, effectively silenced this rebuttable presumption in all contexts. Although there is evidence of the continued existence of the presumptions, the “manifest”, or presumptive, assessment of fault has been overshadowed by the newly fashioned mens rea doctrine with all its metaphysical connotations. A restatement of orthodoxy, and the inferential approach to dishonesty, overcomes the perceived mens rea obstacle to corporate liability.
