O nowelizacji, do której nie doszło, czyli blaski i cienie obiektywnego przypisania skutku

Journal Title: Studia Iuridica - Year 2016, Vol 65, Issue

Abstract

The subject is the 2013 draft law, that was to amend the Polish Penal Code of 1997, but was finally abandoned. It concerned implementation of the „objective attribution of an effect” concept, an equivalent of German „objektive Zurechnung”. Numerous types of crimes (so-called „przestępstwa materialne”) are causally defined and their definitions fit only the cases where the cause-effect relationship (sc. between human behaviour and the effect specifically prescribed by law) is present. For the complete fulfilment of crime existence of the cause-effect relationship is a necessary condition, but from the point of view of equity it can be regarded an insufficient condition. Therefore the „objective attribution” idea proposes some additional limitations to criminal responsibility for an effect of a human behaviour. The paper discusses five criteria (limiting conditions) proposed so far: (1) the behaviour must cause harm to some „legal value” through breaking a legal norm that’s purpose was protecting just the same value (norm purpose identity condition); (2) the harm must result from the same causal mechanism, for which the legal norm was intended (mechanism identity condition); (3) the behaviour must bring on a substantial increase of risk of such harm (increase of risk condition); (4) the harm would not happen if the behaviour did not break the norm (negative test condition); (5) the harm was predictable for a hypothetical „reliable person” being in identical conditions („objective predictability” condition). These conditions are logically independent, i.e. neither none is implied by any other nor none is excluded by any other. They can all potentially be „building blocks” for the legal future construction. Of the further three proposed conditions one is only subsidiary („substantial breach of the norm”), one is redundant and unnecessary („adequacy of causal course”) and one is practically undesired („socially accepted increase of risk”). Polish Common Courts and the Supreme Court have appealed to the „objective attribution” concept in criminal cases for over 15 years, though infrequently. Such a practice has only partial and unclear legal basis (now it is Article 9 § 2 of the Penal Code). The would-be amendment to the Penal Code would not remove the previous doubts. What is more important, the proposed amendment was premature, as the set of conditions listed above allows to design many different versions of the „objective attribution”, and so far there is not a common acceptance for a particular one.<br/><br/>

Authors and Affiliations

Przemysław Konieczniak

Keywords

Related Articles

Programme – related norms in modern agricultural law

Modern legal studies recognise the usefulness and necessity of distinguishing agricultural law norms. As part of the analysis of the legal impact of agricultural law norms, the phenomenon of publicization is also pointed...

Wybrane zagadnienia problemowe pojawiające się na tle przepisów Kodeksu cywilnego regulujących nabycie prawa własności (art. 169 i 174 k.c.) w związku z wprowadzeniem regulacji dotyczących krajowego rejestru utraconych dóbr kultury

This article concerns selected changes, that have arisen for civil ways to purchase property from the introduction in 2015 – by amending the law on the protection of monuments and care of monuments – a new institution in...

Whither Warsaw

Warszawa wydostała się spod nazistowskiej okupacji jako zniszczone miasto, a następnie przez cztery dekady była pod sowiecką okupacją. Ludzie, którzy przetrwali, odbudowali Stare Miasto. Warszawa szybko się rozwija i nad...

Instytucje realnego zbiegu przestępstw w znowelizowanym kodeksie karnym

This article is dedicated to the amended regulations of Chapter IX of the Penal Code concerning the concurrence of offences and aggregation of penalties and penal measures. The problem of the new definition of actual con...

W meandrach trzech gałęzi prawa, czyli kilka słów o bigamii

Bigamy, interpreted as entering into marriage by a person who is already married, is a phenomenon which can be analyzed on a number of different levels. One of the areas of the analysis is the area of penal law where big...

Download PDF file
  • EP ID EP188989
  • DOI -
  • Views 100
  • Downloads 0

How To Cite

Przemysław Konieczniak (2016). O nowelizacji, do której nie doszło, czyli blaski i cienie obiektywnego przypisania skutku. Studia Iuridica, 65(), 41-69. https://www.europub.co.uk/articles/-A-188989