Criminal Liability of People With Mental Disorders: Selected Issues

Abstract

The issue of criminal liability in different legal systems and of the perpetrator’s sanity and mental disorders, has received much attention of researchers from different scientific disciplines. Of many important aspects relevant to this topic, the paper addresses only some, which are related to two legal orders. The first part of the article focuses on the circumstances that exclude and mitigate culpability under Polish criminal law. The author examines the problem of insanity referring to the ways in which insanity is determined and enumerating sources of insanity. Then, the legal consequences of insanity are identified. Finally, the issue of diminished mental capacity in the doctrine of Polish criminal law is analysed. The second part of the article deals with the concept of imputability in the Code of Canon Law of 1983. Quoting the provisions of canon law, the author considers the issue of natural inability to commit a crime by persons who are habitually deprived of the use of reason, and then indicates the circumstances excluding, mitigating and aggravating the perpetrator’s culpability.