Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure
What the exam tests
Questions test the general part of the Criminal Code, classification of a concrete fact pattern, and procedural guarantees from investigation to appeal.
General part
- Legality: no offence and no punishment without a prior statutory basis; no analogy.
- An offence requires an act, unlawfulness, mens rea (intent or negligence where expressly provided) and culpability.
- Attempt is punishable where the law so provides and is mitigated; voluntary abandonment may exclude punishment.
- Complicity distinguishes co-perpetration, instigation and aiding; each participant's intent is assessed separately.
- Defences: necessary self-defence against a present unlawful attack, necessity, duress, and mistake. Mistake of fact excludes intent; mistake of law generally does not.
Procedure
Presumption of innocence and in dubio pro reo govern. Defence counsel is mandatory for serious offences and for vulnerable defendants. Detention on remand is exceptional, reasoned, and periodically reviewed. Evidence obtained through torture or serious rights violations is excluded. Plea agreements require court approval and must respect proportionality.
Worked example
A shopkeeper chases and strikes a thief who is already fleeing with the goods. The unlawful attack has ended, so self-defence fails; proportionate recovery measures were available. Depending on injury and intent, the conduct is charged as assault, with self-defence excluded as a defence but possible mitigation considered at sentencing.
Traps that cost marks
- Treating preparation as punishable attempt.
- Accepting mistake of law as automatically excusing.
- Assuming a plea agreement binds the court without scrutiny.
- Confusing the end of the attack with its continuing danger.