Standard of Criminal Conduct

Abstract

This research examines the concept of illegality in criminal law as one of the fundamental foundations for understanding the nature of crime and defining its scope. The research begins by presenting a definition of illegality from two main jurisprudential perspectives: The formal concept, which links illegality to a violation of the legal text, and the material concept, which is based on the seriousness of the act and its violation of social values ​​and fundamental interests. After comparing the two, the study concludes that the predominant trend in jurisprudence and legislation is to adopt the formal standard, Based on the principle of legality, which guarantees the protection of individual freedoms, the research also discusses the position of illegality in the general theory of crime, highlighting the jurisprudential disagreement between those who consider it the essence of the crime and an inherent characteristic of it, and those who include it among the elements of the crime, alongside the material and moral elements. He discussed the trends that supported each opinion, along with a statement of the criticisms directed at them, The research concluded with the preference for the statement that the crime is based on the material and moral elements only, and that the legal text is what gives the act the characteristic of illegality, not as an element, but as an embodiment of the principle of legality. In the third section, the position of the criminal conduct officer within the framework of illegality was addressed. Jurisprudence was divided between those who considered it part of the crime's structure within the legal element, and those who viewed it as outside its structure, given that it was derived from criminal texts. The study suggests that the criminal behavior officer is specifically found in criminalization texts, whether they include both the obligation and the penalty or are limited to the obligation aspect, given that these texts represent the true vessel that defines the boundaries of legitimacy and illegitimacy.

Thus, the study concludes that criminal illegality is essentially formal, and that its basic criterion is the violation of criminal texts, while acknowledging that the social gravity of the act is the theoretical justification for criminalization, but it is not a criterion for determining illegality in practical application.