2. Managing Mens Rea in Singapore - Singapore Academy of Law

18 SAcLJ 314 Managing Mens Rea in Singapore 369drugs and immigration cases demonstrate how negligence has muscledin, even where the Legislature has been explicit that only knowledgeshould be the mens rea. A parallel development has been the equating ofcriminal with civil negligence, both in terms of the standard of care andthe rather extreme objectivist view of it, resulting in a significant loweringin the threshold of what has to be shown for criminal negligence. A littlemore promising have been developments in strict liability where it canperhaps be cautiously declared that true strict liability no longer exists inSingapore. This has been the work of bold judicial innovation in thedevelopment of the defence of due diligence and the presumption ofnegligent mens rea. Yet the danger is real that the existence of thesehalfway houses will tempt the court to opt for negligence where it mighthave decided on full mens rea in the past. Instrumental arguments aboutthe unworkability of the principle of full mens rea have been very farfrom convincing – the courts in turn accepting or rejecting them forreasons yet to be discerned. The ethical and symbolic cost of punishingthe innocent must not be forgotten. The plea here is for the appropriatescrutiny, both judicial and legislative, of claims that the requirement offull mens rea would adversely and intolerably affect the criminal justicesystem. The bureaucracy will almost invariably try to make their job ofenforcement easier. 158 Our judges and lawmakers must play their part inbeing a restraining influence. The plea here is also for our judges toreconsider the content of criminal negligence, a concept which probablycannot be resisted entirely. As more and more crimes of a serious orderbecome predicated on negligence, the need to set apart the criminal fromthe civil assumes a hitherto unknown urgency.VI.Postscript101 Since this article went into production, there have been somesignificant developments. Only a brief description is offered here to theput the reader on notice. A more satisfactory treatment of them will haveto wait for another day.158 I do not, of course, suggest that there is necessarily any selfish interest in this – thesaving of cost for the bureaucracy is the saving of cost for all taxpayers. Similarly,bureaucratic efficiency is normally a boon not only to the bureaucracy but to all.