Contraindications Criminal Responsibility According to the Jordanian Penal Code in Force in the West Bank and the Palestinian Draft Penal Code

Authors

Mustafa Abdelbaqi, Birzeit UniversityFollow
Alaa Hammad, Birzeit University

Abstract

The exclusion of criminal responsibility reasons are the causes why a person doesn’t bear the criminal responsibility of committing a crime because he/she was unconscious, or unwilling, or both of them. The exclusion of criminal responsibility reasons don’t nullify the criminal description of the conduct (still considered a crime), but the person committed the crime will not be punished because of subjective reasons according to the criteria determined by the legislature. Since the reasons of exclusion of criminal responsibility are subjective, no other person who commits a crime will enjoy the exclusion of criminal responsibility. According to the Jordanian Penal Code no. 16 of 1960, which is still in force in the West Bank, the exclusion of criminal responsibility reasons are: duress; necessity (both of them due to the lack of will); mental incompetence because of insanity; or being under the age of 9 years old; and intoxication (due to the lack of consciousness). Both the Jordanian and Palestinian legislatures don’t consider the voluntary intoxication as exclusion of criminal responsibility reason. On the other hand, the Jordanian legislature, in contradiction to the Palestinian legislature, didn’t tackle the partial loss of consciousness due to intoxication. The Jordanian legislature has made a mistake when dealt with the two expressions “exclusion of criminal responsibility reasons” and “contraindications of punishment” as synonyms, since the later is determined by the legislature according to the public interest. Furthermore, the Jordanian legislature mixed between the “exclusion of criminal responsibility reasons” and the “justification reasons”. The justification reasons are objective circumstances occur at the time of committing the crime, the result of which is the demise of the criminal feature of the conduct, i.e. becomes justified; therefore each person takes part in committing the conduct enjoys the justification.

Recommended Citation

Abdelbaqi, Mustafa and Hammad, Alaa (2020) "Contraindications Criminal Responsibility According to the Jordanian Penal Code in Force in the West Bank and the Palestinian Draft Penal Code," An-Najah University Journal for Research - B (Humanities): Vol. 31: Iss. 4, Article 2.
Available at: https://digitalcommons.aaru.edu.jo/anujr_b/vol31/iss4/2