Objective Imputation in Criminal Law

2020Murat Volkan Dülger, Merve Bakdur, Onur ÖzkanArticle

Abstract

This work was written in Turkish. The summary on this page is a translation; the citation gives the original title in parentheses.

This study seeks to explain the doctrine of objective imputation. The doctrine examines whether the result can be regarded as the perpetrator’s own work and seeks to establish liability by means of a normative assessment. To reach a conclusion on objective imputation, it is first examined whether the act was causal. When the condition theory (conditio sine qua non) is chosen to identify the conduct that led to the result, that is, to establish causation, a large number of equivalent conditions producing the result are identified.

The limitation of these conditions and of criminal liability is likewise carried out in accordance with the doctrine of objective imputation. The study first sets out the framework of objective imputation and explains the criteria on which imputation rests. It then addresses how these criteria establish and exclude objective imputation, and assesses numerous possibilities and examples for each criterion. Finally, it deals with the legal consequences of the exclusion of objective imputation and seeks to explain why the absence of objective imputation excludes typicality (tipiklik).