Liability for a Crime Committed in a State of Inebriation – a Critical Analysis of Article 31 § 3 of the Polish Criminal Code and Propositions De Lege Ferenda Cover Image

Odpowiedzialność za przestępstwo popełnione w stanie nietrzeźwości – analiza krytyczna art. 31 § 3 k.k. i postulaty de lege ferenda
Liability for a Crime Committed in a State of Inebriation – a Critical Analysis of Article 31 § 3 of the Polish Criminal Code and Propositions De Lege Ferenda

Author(s): Anna Golonka
Subject(s): Criminal Law, Substance abuse and addiction, Penal Policy
Published by: Akademia Leona Koźmińskiego
Keywords: state of inebriation; state of intoxication; insanity; diminished sanity; alcohol;

Summary/Abstract: The subject of this paper focuses on issues concerning criminal liability for a crime committed while inebriated or intoxicated. These issues, whose social significance is indisputable, continue to be controversial from the perspective of criminal law. One reason for this is the shortcomings of Article 31 § 3 of the Criminal Code, which serves as the basis to hold an offender who was in said state tempore criminis criminally liable. The purpose of this paper, however, is not so much to criticise the current legal solution as to offer a proposition de lege ferenda concerning a change in the wording of the said provision on the grounds of the reservations raised. The conclusions that lead to it are derived both from the dogmatic-legal analysis of the cited provision and from the empirical approach motivated by the psychopathological view of the state of intoxication, or the problem of (in)sanity of the perpetrator of a prohibited act. These issues are ingrained in the regulation contained in § 3 of Article 31 of the Criminal Code. It is the will of the criminal legislator for the scope of Article 31 of the Criminal Code to encompass a variety of states which may seem similar from a psychopathological point of view they, but actually require a different legal approach with regard to criminal-legal aspects and criminal policy, which this study aims to present.

  • Issue Year: 13/2021
  • Issue No: 4
  • Page Range: 170-188
  • Page Count: 19
  • Language: Polish