Criminal Law II: Responsibility, Affirmative Defenses, and Punishment

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering the concepts, statutory articles, classifications, defenses, and sentencing rules from the Criminal Law II lecture notes.

Presumption of Criminal Responsibility

The legal rule that criminal responsibility is normally assumed to exist unless irresponsibility is specifically raised by the accused during preliminary objections (as per Article 130(2)(g) of the Criminal Procedure Code) or questioned by the court.

Absolute Irresponsibility

The incapacity of a person to appreciate the nature of their conduct and/or regulate their behavior, causing them to lack a morally accountable and punishable mind.

Biological Method

A method of defining irresponsibility that attributes criminal behavior strictly to biological or congenital (inherited) defects, requiring only that the offender suffered from physical or mental disabilities at the time of the offence.

Psychological Method

A method of defining irresponsibility focusing exclusively on whether the offender lost intelligence and volition at the time of the offence (for example, due to uncontrolled emotion), regardless of any biological defect.

Bio-psychological Method

The approach adopted by the 2004 FDRE Criminal Code (Arts. 48–51) that requires a concurrent cause-and-effect relationship between an underlying biological cause and the resulting psychological failure of intelligence or volition.

Absolute Ordinary Irresponsibility (Art. 48)

A condition where a person is totally deprived of intelligence or volition due to biological factors such as senility, illness, or abnormal delays in development, leading to no criminal liability but possible orders for confinement or treatment.

Limited Ordinary Irresponsibility (Art. 49)

A state where a person suffers partial loss of intelligence, volition, or both due to biological causes at the time of the offence, resulting in diminished responsibility, partial liability, and potential safety measures.

Intentional Irresponsibility (Art. 50(1))

A state of self-induced abnormal condition created deliberately to commit a criminal offence pursuant to a pre-existing criminal design, resulting in full criminal liability.

Negligent Irresponsibility (Art. 50(2))

A situation where a person puts themselves under an abnormal condition advertently or inadvertently without a pre-existing criminal design, incurring liability if the committed offence is punishable by negligence.

Accidental Irresponsibility (Art. 50(3))

A self-induced state of complete loss of intelligence or volition created without intention or negligence, which relieves the offender of liability for the primary offence but leaves them liable for breach of public peace under Article 491.

Infancy (Art. 52)

The category of children who have not attained the age of nine years, who are entirely exonerated from criminal liability and subject only to steps taken by family, school, or guardians.

Young Offenders (Arts. 53–55)

Minors between the ages of nine and fifteen years (inclusive) who are criminally liable but subject only to special penalties and educational or curative measures under Articles 157–168 rather than adult penalties.

Criminal Majors but Civil Minors (Art. 56)

Offenders over fifteen but under eighteen years of age who are tried under ordinary Criminal Code provisions as adults, but are entitled to mitigation of sentence and cannot receive the death penalty.

Affirmative Defense

A defense wherein the accused does not deny committing the alleged act or omission, but contends that it is lawful, justifiable, or excusable under the Criminal Code.

Lawful Acts

Acts authorized or required by law or performed under professional duty that legitimize conduct, rendering the act non-criminal and the doer not punishable.

Justifiable Acts

Acts done in circumstances excluding intentional guilt that relieve the perpetrator completely from criminal liability and punishment.

Excusable Acts

Acts committed under circumstances that reduce the degree of guilt, entitling the offender to mitigation or reduction of punishment.

Professional Duty (Art. 69)

A lawful defense for harm caused during the exercise of an occupation requiring specialized skill, provided the act conforms to accepted professional practice and involves no grave professional fault.

Absolute Coercion (Art. 71)

Irresistible physical or moral force that deprives an individual of their freedom of movement or choice, functioning as a justifiable defense provided the act is proportional to the threatened harm.

Resistible Coercion (Art. 72)

A form of duress that does not completely overpower the offender's will, which is not justifiable but serves as an excusable act requiring sentence mitigation.

Superior's Responsibility (Art. 73)

The criminal liability imposed on a higher-ranking administrative or military figure for an offence committed by a subordinate on their express order, provided the subordinate did not exceed the order.

Justifiable Necessity (Art. 75)

A defense based on a balance of evils that justifies an act done as the only proportional means to avert an imminent and serious danger to a legal right, not available to persons with a special duty to protect life or health.

Excess of Necessity (Art. 76)

An act done under imminent danger that is not justifiable but excusable with compulsory mitigation because the act was not necessary, was disproportionate, or arose through the actor's own fault.

Military State of Necessity (Art. 77)

A wider justification defense available to superior officers in active service facing military danger, mutiny, or the enemy, when an act is the only means of obtaining obedience to manifestly lawful orders.

Legitimate Defense (Art. 78)

A legally recognized means of private justice involving the unavoidable and proportionate repelling of an unlawful and imminent attack against protected rights of oneself or another.

Excess in Legitimate Defense (Art. 79)

Imperfect self-defense occurring when a defender uses disproportionate means or exceeds necessary actions to avert an attack, which is not justifiable but requires the court to mitigate punishment.

Mistake of Fact (Art. 80)

An erroneous appreciation of factual circumstances without criminal intent that negates guilt, unless the error is non-fundamental (such as identity of the victim) or punishable as negligence or another offence.

Mistake of Law (Art. 81)

Ignorance or misinterpretation of legal rules, which is generally no defense but allows mitigation or full exemption if held in good faith with adequate, justifiable reasons.

Principal Penalties

The primary categories of punishment applicable to adult offenders, consisting of pecuniary penalties, penalties restricting or depriving liberty, and the death penalty.

Secondary Penalties (Arts. 122–123)

Supplementary sanctions that may be imposed in addition to or in place of primary penalties, such as caution, reprimand, admonishment, public apology, and deprivation of rights.

Recidivism (Art. 67)

A special aggravating circumstance where an offender intentionally commits a new offence punishable by at least six months of simple imprisonment within five years of serving a prior sentence or receiving a pardon.

Material Concurrence (Art. 60(a))

A situation where an offender successively commits two or more distinct, similar or different crimes that are tried together under the same charge.

Notional Concurrence (Art. 60(b))

Ideal concurrence occurring when an offender performs a single act that simultaneously violates several criminal provisions or causes multiple material harms to different persons.

Assimilation (Absorption)

A sentencing method under Article 184(1)(a) for concurrent crimes where lesser penalties are absorbed into the single most severe penalty.