Investigating, apprehending, charging, and trying suspected offenders is regulated by the law of felony procedure. The paradigm case of a criminal offense lies in the proof, past cheap doubt, that a person is responsible of two issues. First, the accused must commit an act which is deemed by society to be criminal, or actus reus . Second, the accused will have to have the requisite malicious intent to do a criminal act, or mens rea . Criminal systems of the civil law tradition distinguish between intention within the broad sense , and negligence. Negligence does not carry felony accountability except a selected crime offers for its punishment.

Energy, fuel, telecomms and water are regulated industries in most OECD nations. Modern military, policing and bureaucratic power over ordinary citizens’ day by day lives pose special problems for accountability that earlier writers corresponding to Locke or Montesquieu couldn’t have foreseen. The customized …