Proving Intention : Some General Remarks

the essay aims to analyse some problems relating to the ascertaiment of one of the mainstays of the principle of mens rea, ie. the intention. In particular, the author explores the different meanings of ''intention'' (from the viewpoint both of legal systems and of theories about mental states), the theoretical and pratical possibility of its ascertainment. According to the a., the main problems about the proof of intention consist in elaborating a precise, rationally justified, definition of ''intention'' and, above all, in the epistemological and methodological questions related to its ascertainment in a given case. In particular, the essay claims that the ascertainment of the subjective elements always presents always a greater degree of uncertainty than the the ascertainment of other facts, and that this is due to the very nature of mental states.