INNOCENCE AND LIMITED INNOCENCE: THE PRACTICE OF THE ANGLO-AMERICAN LEGAL SYSTEM

Abstract

Purpose. The purpose of this paper is to study the norms of the Anglo-American legal family regarding the сriteria for innocence of the incapacitated subjects of objectively unlawful acts: medical and legal criteria. Methodology. The methodology includes a comprehensive analysis and a synthesis of available scientific and theoretical information. It is includes the formulation of relevant conclusions and recommendations. Such methods of scientific knowledge were used: terminological, logical-semantic, functional, systemic-structural, comparatively legal. Results: In the course of the study, it was recognized that the law of countries within the Anglo-American legal system was characterized by clear problems with the formulation of both legal and medical criteria of insanity. The main reason for this omission is the application in practice of judicial precedents that have been adopted since the last century. Originality. The study identified a number of shortcomings of the Anglo-American legal family in determining the criteria of insanity, namely: there is no strong-willed character of the legal criterion; their indisputable character makes it impossible to deduce the intermediate states of the human psyche; the circumstances that the crimes may be committed by persons whose “defect of mind” does not take place as a result of mental illness are not taken into account; the burden of proving insanity is transferred to the defendant himself. The medical criterion of insanity in the Anglo-American legal family also raises a number of remarks, the main of which is a fairly extensive list of forms of mental illness and abnormalities, which provokes impunity for potential criminals. Practical significance. The results of the study can be used in law-making and enforcement activities in the administration of justice against incapacitated persons.