dolus

Dolus is a Latin legal term that denotes deceit or fraud and, in a broader sense, the mental state of a person who intends to bring about a prohibited result or who acts with knowledge of the likelihood of a harmful outcome. In legal tradition it is used to describe mens rea, the intentional or knowingly reckless mindset behind an act, and is often contrasted with culpa, fault or negligence.

In civil law and Roman-law heritage, dolus is used to classify liability and criminal liability by the actor’s intent. A common distinction is between dolus directus, where the agent aims to achieve a specific result, and dolus eventualis, where the agent foresees a possible result and proceeds regardless, effectively accepting the risk. These concepts continue to appear in the comparative law literature of many continental systems, where intent can be a decisive factor in criminal and contractual liability.

Dolus also appears in contract and tort contexts as a form of deceit. In contract law, dolo (the adversarial form of dolus) refers to intentional deception used to induce another party to enter an agreement, often a ground for voiding the contract or for damages.

In modern common law jurisdictions, the Latin term dolus is less commonly used in statutes or case law, with similar ideas described in terms of intent or malice rather than as a distinct Latin category. Nevertheless, dolus remains a key concept in discussions of mens rea within comparative and doctrinal legal writings.