Liability for Withholding Assistance: General Clause or Closed List? A Review of Competing Models in Arab Legislations

Abstract

This study reviews two main approaches for dealing with omission of assistance in the criminal laws of Arab jurisdictions. The first approach adopts a general clause on the crime of withholding assistance. This approach, following the model of the French Code pénal, prioritises the right to life and bodily integrity over individual freedom, and has been adopted in Algeria, the UAE, Qatar, Lebanon, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan. The second approach restricts criminal omission of assistance to a closed list of cases, in which it mandates a duty to intervene. The Palestinian Criminal Code follows this alternative model, with origins in English criminal law, prioritising individual freedom. The study presents the viability of a general omission clause in criminal law. It contrasts this with the absence of a comparable clause in civil liability, where Arab jurisprudence has instead codified a set of requirements for simple omission to result in civil liability.