Causality Doctrine Regulations

Explicitly, the Criminal Code does not contain specific rules about causality.

However, this concept is implied in several articles of the Criminal Code, such as:

  • Article 359 Criminal Code: Persecution
  • Article 360 of the Criminal Code: Severe Persecution
  • Article 338 of the Criminal Code: Murder
  • Article 187 of the Criminal Code: Arson

These articles use phrases such as "resulting in", "causing", and "giving rise to" which indicate a causal relationship between the act and the consequence.

Theory in the Doctrine of Causality of Criminal Law

The Doctrine of Causality is necessary to determine the existence of an objective relationship between human actions and prohibited consequences. Therefore, this theory is very important for material criminal acts, and criminal acts that are qualified by their consequences. This is because in material criminal acts there is a constitutive element of consequence, which relates to what is the cause of the consequences that have been determined in the legislation and which party is responsible for the criminal act.

Post Hoc NonPropter hoc, that is, an event that occurs after another event is not necessarily a result of the preceding event.

To answer these challenges, 3 (three) theories have generally developed, namely:

  1. Theory conditio sine quanon/theory equvalen.
  2. Theory adequat (general)
  3. Theory of individualization