By committing a criminal offence, an offender violates the legal rights of another person. Legal rights are vital assets, social values, fundamental values such as life, health, sexual integrity and freedom required for people’s social coexistence, but also, for instance, tangible assets such as property or collective rights such as the proper functioning of the economic system.
The Penal Code provides that a criminal offence is an offence for which the principal punishment prescribed in the case of natural persons (individuals) is a pecuniary punishment or imprisonment and in the case of legal persons (an association established pursuant to the law, such as a public or private limited company) a pecuniary punishment. The Penal Code also provides that as a general rule only an intentional act is punishable as a criminal offence.
Intent shows how an act committed by a person relates to his or her internal world: whether the person knew what he or she was doing and whether he or she wanted to do it. If a person has doubts as to whether he or she is doing the right thing, he or she will always be able to specify in advance (e.g. request information from an authority or seek advice from a lawyer).
Prerequisites for criminal liability
Pursuant to the Penal Code, a person can only be punished if the act comprises the necessary elements of an offence, is unlawful and the person is guilty of committing the offence.
- The act comprises the necessary elements of a criminal offence. The objective elements necessary to constitute an offence are the acts or omissions described by law, and in some cases the consequences which are in a causal relation to such acts or omissions. The subjective elements of an offence are intent or negligence. The intent of an offender has to be established as a subjective element to constitute an offence.
- Unlawfulness. The act violates the legal order, i.e. it is contrary to the legal provisions governing people’s coexistence. Unlawfulness is presumed and it is examined whether the act that comprises the necessary elements of an offence may, by way of exception, be lawful. Examples of circumstances precluding unlawfulness are self-defence, necessity, conflict of obligations and an error concerning a circumstance which precludes unlawfulness (e.g. the police officer’s right under the Law Enforcement Act to use physical force in certain cases). If an act comprises the necessary elements of a criminal offence and is unlawful, it is then examined whether a person is guilty of committing it.
- Guilt. A person can be punished for an unlawful act only if he or she was capable of guilt at the time of its commission and guilt is not precluded. A person under fourteen years of age or a person who is incapable of understanding the unlawfulness of the act or incapable of acting according to such understanding due to his or her illness (such as a mental disability, a mental illness, etc.) cannot be punished.
The Special Part of the Penal Code provides an exhaustive list of criminal offences (chapters 8 to 24).
Degrees of criminal offences in the Penal Code
- For a criminal offence in the first degree, the Code prescribes the maximum punishment as imprisonment for a term of more than five years or life imprisonment.
- For a criminal offence in the second degree, the Code prescribes imprisonment for a term of up to five years or a pecuniary punishment.
The State Portal eesti.ee does not provide legal assistance. Legal portal Hugo.legal will help you find solutions to legal issues of everyday life. European e-Justice portal provides information on justice systems.