| Abstract [eng] |
This master’s thesis analyses the concept of mistake in criminal law, taking into account current legal regulations and drawing on legal doctrine, case law, and other sources. A mistake in criminal law is an unconscious, manifested in objective reality deviation in a natural person’s, who is conscious in the criminal-legal sense, perception from the legal or factual circumstances prescribed by law when committing a specific act. Factual circumstances are generally understood as the objective circumstances of an act prohibited by the Criminal Code as perceived by the perpetrator, while legal circumstances are understood as the legal assessment of the committed act. The significance of mistake in criminal law emerges in the context of the principle of culpability (lat. nullum crimen, nulla poena sine culpa)—a central principle of criminal law. It is precisely the content of culpability that determines what a person must understand when committing a certain act for that act to be recognized as criminal. A mistake in criminal law, as a certain deviation in a person’s perception from the factual circumstances of the act prohibited by the Criminal Code or from the legal assessment of the act being committed, can undoubtedly affect the content of a person’s guilt—negating or modifying it. The master's thesis analyses the concept of mistake in criminal law, its characteristics, identifies the guidelines for the impact of mistake in criminal law on a person’s criminal liability in the context of the principle of culpability, and presents examples of specific mistakes in criminal law and their potential impact on a person’s criminal liability, as revealed, inter alia, in case law. The concept of mistake in criminal law defines the scope of this legal issue, the question of the impact of mistake in criminal law on a person’s criminal liability reveals the significance of this legal issue, and the analysis of examples of mistakes in criminal law allows one to better understand this highly complex issue and draw conclusions regarding its practical relevance. |
