A Comparative Essay on the History, Nature and Necessity of the Distinction Between Grounds of Justification and Grounds of Excuse

2014Murat Volkan DülgerArticle

Abstract

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

An important stage in the development of the theory of crime is the separation of unlawfulness from culpability. This is directly linked to wrongdoing and guilt. This link also forms an organic connection with the grounds of justification and the circumstances affecting culpability. Once this important distinction had been drawn, the grounds of excuse were defined among the circumstances affecting culpability. It was understood that grounds of excuse differ from the other circumstances affecting culpability.

These distinctions also provide an important starting point for comparing the Continental European legal system with the Anglo-Saxon legal system. Our article examines, from a comparative law perspective, the historical process by which these distinctions emerged, the reasons for them and their consequences. In this way, an attempt is also made to compare these two major legal systems and, in particular, German criminal law and Turkish criminal law.