Regulating negligence in French and Italian criminal law

• Author: Cristinel Ghigheci
• Position: Transilvania University of Bra?ov, Judge of the Brasov Court of Appeal, Romania
• Pages: 127-133

Regulating negligence in French and Italian criminal law

Lecturer Cristinel GHIGHECI1

Abstract

The modified version of art. 121-3 of the French Criminal Code introduces a

hierarchy of the nonintentional forms of guilt a ccording to seriousness. From the

perspective of the French legislator, this hierarchy would be the following: deliberate

negligence (art. 121-3 para. 2), simple negligence – carelessness, imprudence – (art. 121-3

para. 3) and breaking a duty of ca re or protection (art. 121-3 para. 4). In the Italian

Criminal Code only the conscious negligence is defined, whereas the simple negligence is

not defined, but merely exemplified. Thus, article 43 para. 1 states that “The re is an offence

committed with negligence whenever the result, even though foreseen, is not desired by the

agent and occurs because of carelessness, imprudence, lack of skill, or failure to observe

laws, regulations, orders or instructions”.

Keywords: criminal negligence, indirect intention, French legal system, Italian

legal system.

JEL Classification: K14

1. Introduction

In comparative law, there are many legal solutions regarding the ways of

regulating the forms of mens rea (guilt). The new Romanian Criminal Code, like

the previous Criminal Code, adopted in 1968, chose to expressly regulate the forms

of guilt, by defining them under art. 16.

Most of legal systems do not contain a legal definition of the forms of

guilt, relying instead on the case law and the doctrine to provide the elements

necessary to define them. Some of such legal systems include mere enumerations

of the forms of guilt that an offender might have when committing an offence

without including a legal definition of such forms of guilt, while others do not even

expressly refer to such forms of guilt in their legislation.

We previously addressed the issue of regulating negligence in German and

Spanish criminal law2, and we hereby complete our approach by the way in which

negligence is approached under French and Italian criminal legal systems.

1 Cristinel Ghigheci - Transilvania University of Brașov, Judge of the Brasov Court of Appeal,

Romania, cristinelghigheci@yahoo.com.

2 Cristinel Ghigheci, Regulating negligence in German and in Spanish criminal law, Juridical

Tribune, Volume 8, Special Issue, October 2018, p. 39-48.