Summary.
The bill proposes new wording for Article 32 of the Criminal Code (Código Penal). Under that wording, a person commits no offense when acting in defense of their own person or rights, another person, or that person's property, provided the circumstances require such action. The provision addresses lawful defense through the relationship between an attack and the conduct of the person seeking to prevent or repel it. Its scope includes defense of oneself and defense of another person and their property, subject to the conditions listed in the same article.
The first condition is an unjustified attack that is ongoing or imminent and has caused, or could cause, harm through the act. The second requires the use of a rational means to prevent or repel the attack. The third requires the absence of sufficient provocation by the person defending themselves or the person being defended. The conditions must occur together: the article states that defense is lawful when they concur. The proposal thus links the absence of an offense to the circumstances of the attack, the means used in response, and the prior conduct of the person being defended or of the person exercising the defense.
The same article introduces a presumption of lawful defense in a case involving entry against the will of someone entitled to exclude another person. The presumption concerns a person who, while in imminent danger, repels someone who has entered their residence, dwelling, house or room, vehicle, or workplace. The objection to entry may be express or presumed. The provision therefore brings together imminent danger, the act of repelling the entrant, and entry contrary to that will, while identifying the places covered by the presumption.
Article 2 declares that the proposed law amends Article 32 of the Criminal Code. Article 3 provides that it would take effect upon promulgation. Taken together, the provisions concentrate the amendment in that criminal-law article: they first give the proposed wording, then identify the statutory amendment, and finally establish when the law would enter into force. The bill establishes no administrative procedure and assigns no implementing duties to a particular public authority.
Given its subject matter, the proposal relates to public authorities responsible for applying the Criminal Code in criminal matters. Its content could interest or affect people who invoke lawful defense, people defended by others, and people involved in entries into the listed places, including those connected with residences, vehicles, and workplaces.
What it proposes.
- Lawful defense under the Criminal Code.
- The conditions for treating an act of defense as lawful.
- A presumption of lawful defense in specified entry situations.
Who it would affect.
- People acting in defense of themselves, their rights, another person, or that person's property.
- People defended by a third party.
- People entering the specified places against the will of someone entitled to exclude them.
Key points.
- The proposed wording provides that a person commits no offense when acting in defense of themselves, their rights, another person, or that person's property when circumstances require it.Art. 1
- It requires an unjustified attack that is ongoing or imminent and has caused, or could cause, harm.Art. 1
- It requires a rational means of preventing or repelling the attack.Art. 1
- It requires the absence of sufficient provocation by the person defending themselves or the person being defended.Art. 1
- It presumes lawful defense when a person in imminent danger repels someone who entered the listed places against the express or presumed will of a person entitled to exclude them.Art. 1
- It declares an amendment to Article 32 of the Criminal Code.Art. 2
- It provides that the proposed law would take effect upon promulgation.Art. 3