Omissions
Core Concepts in Criminal Law and Criminal Justice, January 2020, ISBN: 9781108483391
39 Pages Posted: 5 Aug 2020
Date Written: February 10, 2020
Abstract
From a naturalistic perspective, omission is the opposite of action – it is non-action (not-doing), absence of action. From this perspective, an act or active conduct can be easily identified because of the expenditure of energy it generates, for example, through a bodily movement causing a certain result in the empirical world. In contrast, an omission lacks a physical reality; it does not display any (causal) energy; it is, in this sense, simply non-existent. As a consequence of such a naturalistic approach, it has been argued that omissions cannot actually cause any result and thus cannot have any legal relevance, let alone create criminal liability.
Keywords: criminal law, international law, international criminal law, criminal justice, omissions
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation