Criminal liability in the internal law of the European Union Member States

• Author: Gorghiu Alina - Stefania
• Position: Al. I. Cuza University of Iasi
• Pages: 120-129

CRIMINAL LIABILITY IN THE INTERNAL LAW OF THE EUROPEAN

UNION MEMBER STATES

Candidate to Ph.D. Alina – Ştefania Gorghiu,

Al. I. Cuza University of Iasi;

alinagorghiu@yahoo.com

Abstract: The purpose of present paper is to analyse the criminal juridical liability within

the European States through a more detailed presentation of two legal systems, the French and the

Romanian one.

Key words: Criminal, Liability, Europe.

1. Brief History of the Juridical Liability

Such as many other juridical notions, the criminal liability during its conceptual evolution

was preceded by a few theses, having initially a social meaning and therefore, a wider application

range. Such concepts are the social responsibility and the liability, which taken in their vast

meaning of social phenomena, can be met from the most ancient times, even from the times when

the first human society appeared.

Gradually there appears a clearer delimitation between the notions of “responsibility” and

“liability”; the latter does not aim the value system as much (as the former one does), but much

more the normative system of the society, based on which the complex relations between the state

authorities and structures, on one hand, and citizens, on the other hand, are realized.

Although the responsibility and the liability remain simultaneous and mostly similar

phenomena, the liability becomes more and more individualized and separated, constituting a

distinct entity founded on special external factors which manifests as an expression of compulsory

requirements imposed by the State to the citizens. The final purpose is the protection and the

conservation of the important social values, while its functionality is ensured by a sanctions system.

The definition of the juridical liability notion generated multiple controversies. Thus, Henri

Lalou, starting from the etymological significance of the word “liability”, relates the idea of liability

to the obligation resulted from an infringement.

The Italian doctrine, more specifically oriented towards the criminal liability, defines the

liability as the offender’s obligation to bear criminal punishment. The German school, with its

illustrious representatives G. Haney and Wagner, affirms that the liability is the expression of a

“conduct measure required by the law”.

The present definitions describe the juridical liability as the institution which comprises all

the juridical norms that regulate the juridical relations born within the specific activity, carried out

by the public authorities, pursuant to the law, against those who infringe or ignore the lawful order

in order to ensure the observance and the promotion of the juridical order and the public welfare.

Starting from the XII century in the English criminal law, under the influence of the Roman

law and the Canonical Law, there were crystallized the first points of view imposing the criminal

guilt at the basis of the criminal liability.

Due to historical reasons, the English law went through a special evolution, independently

of the Roman juridical system. As main consequence of this evolution, the Anglo-Saxon law does

not have the classifications or the definitions that the Roman traditional law does, or the principles

born from the common basis of the continental law systems. As opposed to the continental model,

the basis of the English law is the jurisprudence (the common law). That is why certain principles or

general applicability rules are quite difficult to distinguish, as long as the jurisprudence resumes it

all to giving solution to actual cases; therefore the presentation of an English law institution is only

but a complex one. Instead of criminal law, in England there were and there are still functioning