INTRODUCTION TO SUBSTANTIVE CRIMINAL LAW Elena M. Górriz Royo
Elena M. Górriz Royo has a PhD in Law from the University Jaume I-Castellon (2001). Currently, she is Professor at the School of Law of Valencia University. Criminal law Department. She got some awards, such as: the Law Faculty´s Award of dissertation-2001, from the University Jaume I-Castellón ; and the Award of the “Economic and Social Council of the Valencian Region of Spain” (“Consejo Económico y Social de la Comunidad Valenciana”) for her doctoral dissertation (2001). She was Visiting Scholar at the “Università degli Studi Roma Tre” (Italy, 1999), at the Max-PlanktInstitut für Ausländisches und Internationales Strafrecht. Freiburg im Br.(Germany 2000, 2002, 2003), at the Florida International University (USA, 2001) and at the University of California at Berkeley, USA (Institute for Legal Research-2014), (Center for the Study of Law and Society -2016, 2018). Among other jobs at the Valencia University, she was Erasmus coordinator, she is Secretary lecturer of the Department of Criminal law and coordinator of the 2º Course of Law Degree of the Faculty of Law of the University of Valencia
legal studies
legal studies
legal studies
INTRODUCTION TO SUBSTANTIVE CRIMINAL LAW
COMITÉ CIENTÍFICO DE LA EDITORIAL TIRANT LO BLANCH María José Añón Roig
Catedrática de Filosofía del Derecho de la Universidad de Valencia
Ana Cañizares Laso
Catedrática de Derecho Civil de la Universidad de Málaga
Jorge A. Cerdio Herrán
Catedrático de Teoría y Filosofía de Derecho. Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México
José Ramón Cossío Díaz
Ministro en retiro de la Suprema Corte de Justicia de la Nación y miembro de El Colegio Nacional
Eduardo Ferrer Mac-Gregor Poisot
Presidente de la Corte Interamericana de Derechos Humanos. Investigador del Instituto de Investigaciones Jurídicas de la UNAM
Owen Fiss
Catedrático emérito de Teoría del Derecho de la Universidad de Yale (EEUU)
José Antonio García-Cruces González
Catedrático de Derecho Mercantil de la UNED
Luis López Guerra
Catedrático de Derecho Constitucional de la Universidad Carlos III de Madrid
Ángel M. López y López
Catedrático de Derecho Civil de la Universidad de Sevilla
Marta Lorente Sariñena
Catedrática de Historia del Derecho de la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
Javier de Lucas Martín
Catedrático de Filosofía del Derecho y Filosofía Política de la Universidad de Valencia
Víctor Moreno Catena
Catedrático de Derecho Procesal de la Universidad Carlos III de Madrid
Francisco Muñoz Conde
Catedrático de Derecho Penal de la Universidad Pablo de Olavide de Sevilla
Angelika Nussberger
Jueza del Tribunal Europeo de Derechos Humanos. Catedrática de Derecho Internacional de la Universidad de Colonia (Alemania)
Héctor Olasolo Alonso
Catedrático de Derecho Internacional de la Universidad del Rosario (Colombia) y Presidente del Instituto Ibero-Americano de La Haya (Holanda)
Luciano Parejo Alfonso
Catedrático de Derecho Administrativo de la Universidad Carlos III de Madrid
Tomás Sala Franco
Catedrático de Derecho del Trabajo y de la Seguridad Social de la Universidad de Valencia
Ignacio Sancho Gargallo
Magistrado de la Sala Primera (Civil) del Tribunal Supremo de España
Tomás S. Vives Antón
Catedrático de Derecho Penal de la Universidad de Valencia
Ruth Zimmerling
Catedrática de Ciencia Política de la Universidad de Mainz (Alemania)
Procedimiento de selección de originales, ver página web: www.tirant.net/index.php/editorial/procedimiento-de-seleccion-de-originales
INTRODUCTION TO SUBSTANTIVE CRIMINAL LAW
ELENA M. GÓRRIZ ROYO Profesora Titular Derecho penal School of Law. University of Valencia
tirant lo blanch Valencia, 2019
Copyright ® 2019 Todos los derechos reservados. Ni la totalidad ni parte de este libro puede reproducirse o transmitirse por ningún procedimiento electrónico o mecánico, incluyendo fotocopia, grabación magnética, o cualquier almacenamiento de información y sistema de recuperación sin permiso escrito de la autora y del editor. En caso de erratas y actualizaciones, la Editorial Tirant lo Blanch publicará la pertinente corrección en la página web www.tirant.com.
Directores de la colección: TOMÁS S. VIVES ANTÓN Catedrático de Derecho Penal Universidad de Valencia
ELENA M. GÓRRIZ ROYO Titular de Derecho penal Universidad de Valencia
© Elena M. Górriz Royo
© De esta edición, Tirant lo Blanch y Publicacions de la Universitat de València Edita: Tirant lo Blanch Publicacions de la Universitat de València Email:tlb@tirant.com www.tirant.com Librería virtual: www.tirant.es ISBN: 978-84-1336-384-4 (Tirant lo Blanch) ISBN: 978-84-9134-521-3 (PUV) MAQUETA: Tink Factoría de Color Si tiene alguna queja o sugerencia, envíenos un mail a: atencioncliente@tirant.com. En caso de no ser atendida su sugerencia, por favor, lea en www.tirant.net/index.php/empresa/politicas-deempresa nuestro procedimiento de quejas. Responsabilidad Social Corporativa: http://www.tirant.net/Docs/RSCTirant.pdf
To my father, Vicente To my mother, Dolores
Contents Abbreviations............................................................................................ 13 Foreword................................................................................................... 15
Part One
GENERAL ASPECTS AND PENAL PRINCIPLES OF CRIMINAL LAW Chapter 1. Concept of Criminal Law..................................................... 19 1. Introduction to substantive Criminal Law: mention of the last reforms of the Spanish Penal Code.................................................... 19 2. Definition and nature of Criminal Law.......................................... 22 3. Linkages with other branches of Law............................................ 24 4. Ius puniendi and legal principles.................................................... 26 Chapter 2. The Legality Principle........................................................... 29 1. 2. 3. 4.
Concept and content...................................................................... 29 Legal, and extra-legal, sources of Criminal Law............................. 35 The interpretation and prohibition of analogy............................... 40 Criminal norms and their temporal limits - special reference to ex post facto laws............................................................................... 43
Chapter 3. Proportionality principle and the Harm principle................. 47 1. The need for an offence: principle of proporcionality (in the wide sense)............................................................................................. 47 2. The harm principle and the legally protected interest..................... 50 3. Differences between crimes of harm and crimes of danger............. 53 Chapter 4. Ne bis in idem....................................................................... 55 1. Substantive and procedural aspects of the principle....................... 55 2. Rules to solve an apparent joining of criminal norms.................... 56 Chapter 5. The Principle of presumption of innocence........................... 59 1. Introduction................................................................................... 59 2. The essential meaning of the fundamental right............................. 61
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Part Two
BASIC INSTITUTIONS OF CRIMINAL LAW THE CRIME AS AN ACTION Chapter 6. Concept of crime.................................................................. 67 1. Doctrinal Definitions..................................................................... 67 2. Legal notion of crime..................................................................... 68 3. Classification of crimes.................................................................. 70 Chapter 7. Requirement of a human action............................................ 75 1. Principle of the need for an action................................................. 75 2. Different concepts of action........................................................... 76 3. The meaningful conception of action............................................. 79 Chapter 8. Types of conduct................................................................... 81 1. Action and omission...................................................................... 81 2. Pure omission................................................................................ 83 3. Comission by omission.................................................................. 84 Chapter 9. Action, causation and attribution......................................... 87 1. Action and causation..................................................................... 87 2. Action and attribution. Brief mention of the modern theory of objective imputation.......................................................................... 89 3. Conclusions................................................................................... 91 Chapter 10. The Definition of Crime........................................................ 93 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Definition and its terms.................................................................. 93 The principle of certainty or requirement of legislative specificity.. 95 The concept of “defined action�: elements..................................... 96 Normative agent: classification - those wronged by crime.............. 97 Absence of defined action.............................................................. 99
Chapter 11. The wrongdoing................................................................... 103 1. 2. 3. 4.
Ways of attributing a criminal wrongdoing.................................... 103 Intention: concept, content and classes........................................... 105 Negligence: content and classes...................................................... 109 Absence of wrongdoing: accident and mistake in elements of the definition....................................................................................... 112
Chapter 12. Exclusion of wrongdoing (I)................................................. 115 1. Rationale for the exclusion of the wrong....................................... 115
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2. Strong permission (grounds for justification)................................. 116 3. Legitimate use of a right, profession or post, and fulfilment of a duty............................................................................................... 118 4. Consent......................................................................................... 121 Chapter 13. Exclusion of wrongdoing (II)................................................ 123 1. Self-defence: concept...................................................................... 123 2. Requirements................................................................................. 124 3. Necessity as strong permission: concept......................................... 126 4. Requirements................................................................................. 127 Chapter 14. Exclusion of wrongdoing (III)............................................... 131 1. Weak permissions (excuses): basis.................................................. 131 2. Necessity as a weak permission...................................................... 132 3. nsurmountable fear........................................................................ 133
Part Three
PERPETRATION OF THE CRIME Chapter 15. Iter criminis.......................................................................... 137 1. Principle of perpetration and preparatory offences........................ 137 2. Attempt......................................................................................... 142 3. Consummation.............................................................................. 144 Chapter 16. Offenders: perpetrator and accomplice................................. 145 1. 2. 3. 4.
Contours of the conceptual problem of defining “perpetrator�...... 145 The perpetrator in the Spanish Penal Code.................................... 149 Participation (Complicity).............................................................. 150 Mention to mass media criminal liability and to the corporate criminal libility.................................................................................. 152
Part Four
CRIME AS BLAMEWORTHINESS Chapter 17. Culpability (I)....................................................................... 159 1. The principle of Culpability........................................................... 159 2. The Guilt: brief historical notes, foundation and content............... 160 Chapter 18. Culpability (II): the capacity for culpability (accountability). 163 1. Concept and nature of accountability............................................ 163
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2. Cases of non-accountability: infancy, insanity and intoxication..... 164 3. The moment of accountability: Actiones liberae in causae............. 168 Chapter 19. Culpability (III): knowledge of wrongfulness and mistake about prohibition.................................................................. 171 1. Knowledge of wrongfulness: concept............................................. 171 2. Mistake about the wrongdoing: concept and status....................... 172 Bibliography.............................................................................................. 175
Abbreviations BOE ECHR ECtHR EU OL OLRCLM PC Sp. C. S/STC S/STS Sp.C.C. TS UK
Official Bulletin of the Spanish State. European Convention of Human Rights. European Court of Human Rights. European Union. Organic Law. Organic Law 5/2000, of 12 January, of Criminal Liability of Minors. Spanish Penal Code. Spanish Constitution of 1978. Sentence/s of the Spanish Constitutional Court. Sentence/s of the Spanish Supreme Court. Spanish Constitutional Court. Spanish Supreme Court. United Kingdom.
Foreword To provide an introduction for the study of the General Part of Spanish Criminal law is a very difficult task, because this substantive Criminal law was elaborated under the influence of German doctrine and, therefore, suffered an “elephantiasic” development, which, in practice, is of little use, because to know the Spanish Criminal law is to know the Penal Code and the legal decisions of judges who apply it. However, neither is feasible to give an overview of such decisions because, in our legal order, the principle of “stare decisis” does not have effect, and there does not exist any authority which unifies the criteria of those decisions. Therefore, I think that, with good judgement, Prof. Elena Gorriz has chosen to expound, schematically, the basic concepts that are necessary to understand the Penal Code’s regulation and to reduce to a minimum doctrinal discussions and jurisprudential references, in particular because those references suffer from many, and perhaps too frequent, changes. Despite all these problems, I believe she has managed to produce a text that, with its modest aspirations, will very much help the reader to follow the explanations in the lectures and to understand Spanish Criminal law such as it exists in practice. Difficulties for translation, in that each language corresponds to a different legal system, are also very acute. In my opinion, Prof. Gorriz has resolved these difficulties very well, even though in some cases, she has consciously had to renounce linguistic purity in order to transmit properly the ideas that she expounds. That said, it would be impossible to produce a text that could better compliment the study of substantive Criminal law. If at any time such a text were to come into existence, it would be the result of a long process of refinement, and would need the support of many updated teaching materials provided by the lecturer. In the meantime, these introductory pages, supported by the explanations and notes provided in the lectures, will, without any doubt, assist in developing knowledge of this discipline to the necessary depth to become a good
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professional. This work’s objective could not be otherwise, and I believe that it has been achieved in full. Tomás S. Vives Antón La Cañada, 5th. September 2019
Part One
GENERAL ASPECTS AND PENAL PRINCIPLES OF CRIMINAL LAW
Chapter 1
Concept of Criminal Law 1. INTRODUCTION TO SUBSTANTIVE CRIMINAL LAW: MENTION OF THE LAST REFORMS OF THE SPANISH PENAL CODE From the perspective of common law it is difficult to agree about how the “general” part of Criminal law should be defined. Broadly speaking, the “general” part consists in those doctrines, rules and definitions that are not essentially tied to any specific offence or set of offences. However, there is disagreement about how doctrines and rules should be allocated as between the “general” or the “special” parts. 1 Essentially, the General part of Criminal law is that which studies its substantive aspects. It is usually understood to be the part that largely serves to place limits on legal activity for the purpose of prohibiting certain types of behaviour.2 Thus, substantive criminal law refers mainly to the physical and mental element (if any) that has to be proved for each criminal offence. It does not include rules of procedural or evidence or sentencing theory.3 On the other hand, in Criminal law of Continental law system, the Special part of Criminal law exists for the purpose of studying the specific types of behaviour that are prohibited.4 From the perspective of the civil law systems of criminal justice, the General part of Criminal law, includes, among other aspects: fundamental principles of substantive Criminal law, general elements of
1
2
3
4
Vid. DUFF, R.A., Answering for Crime. Responsibility and liability in the Criminal law, London, 2007, p. 3. Vid. FITZGERALD, P.J., Criminal Law and Punishment, Oxford University Press, 1962, p. 93. Vid. MARTIN, J./STOREY, T., Unlocking Criminal law, 5th. Ed., London-New York, 2015, p. 3. Vid. DUBBER, M.D./HÖRNLE, T., Criminal law. A Comparative approach, Oxford University Press, NY, 2014, p. 187.
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crime and its punishment.5 This book is focused on the principles of Criminal law and a general approach to the theory of crime. Its target is to facilitate an introduction to the main institutions of Spanish Criminal law, comparing them, in some particular aspects, with the ones of the Common law system. Thus, Section I provides an overview of general concepts as, basically, the definition of Criminal law. Additionally, it is generally studied the most important principles in Criminal law, in other words, the limits to the “ius puniendi”. As, among others, the Legality and Proportionality principles and the Presumption of Innocence. Section II encompasses the analysis of the essential institutions of Criminal law. Namely, the crime, and connected to it, the action, definition, wrongdoing and culpability. Finally, Section III provides an essential introduction to the problem of punishment, analyzing, basically, its concept, rationale and purposes. The General part of Criminal law in the Spanish regulation is contained in Book I of the Spanish Penal Code of 1995. Before this current Penal Code (hereinafter P.C.), there were many other codes, due to the fact that the political history of the Spanish State is full of cons titutional change. These constitutional changes influenced both our Criminal law and the Penal Codes. In fact, there were 8 Penal Codes enacted between 1822 and 1995: in 1822, 1848, 1850, 1870, 1928, 1932, 1944, and 1995. Currently the Penal Code of 1995 (LO 10/1995 of 23 November) is in force and has replaced all previous codes. However, many penal reforms were recently enacted so that the original Penal Code of 1995 has changed in many aspects. One of the most important ones was the penal reform of OL 1/2015, 30th. of March (hereinafter “penal reform of 2015”), which is necessary to take in account due to the fact that modified many statutes of the Book I of the Penal Code. Later on time there were the penal reforms of OL 1/2019, 20th. of February6 and OL 2/2019, 1st. of March.7
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6 7
Vid. COBO DEL ROSAL/VIVES ANTÓN, Derecho penal. Parte general, Valencia, 1999, passim. Vid. BOE Nº 45, February 21st., 2019 (p. 16698). Vid. BOE nº. 53, March 2nd., 2019 (p. 20278).