Comment to Article 14. Persons subject to criminal liability of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan

     1. Only a sane individual who has reached the age established by this Code is subject to criminal liability.      

2. Persons who have committed crimes are equal before the law, regardless of origin, social, official and property status, gender, race, nationality, language, attitude to religion, beliefs, membership in public associations, place of residence or any other circumstances.      

In part 1 of the commented article, the legislator for the first time establishes the mandatory legal features of the subject of the crime.       Based on the above, the main features of the subject of the crime include:      

1. An individual.      

2. Sanity.      

3. Reaching a legally defined age.      

In order for the person who committed the crime to be recognized as its subject, it is necessary to establish the presence of the three listed signs. The absence of at least one of them indicates the absence of corpus delicti (since there is no subject of the crime), and therefore there is no reason to bring a person to criminal responsibility.      

Article 14 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan names an individual as one of the signs of a common subject of a crime. This means that only a person can be the subject of a crime. The individuals referred to in Part 1 of Article 14 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan are citizens of the Republic of Kazakhstan, stateless persons and foreign citizens. This follows from the content of Articles 6 and 7 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan.      

Criminal law, considering crime as a social phenomenon, recognizes only a person with reason and relative freedom of will as the subject of crime. This corresponds to the objectives of criminal law, its principles, the concept of crime and the goals of punishment.      

People who commit various offenses, including crimes, can join forces and make collective decisions. However, criminal liability is always strictly personal.      

Thus, if a chained dog bites a person, then the question of civil or administrative liability may arise, not of the dog, but of the dog's owner. If there is malicious intent on the part of the owner, who specifically released the dog so that it would bite a person, the question arises of the criminal liability of the owner for intentionally causing harm to health. A dog cannot be recognized as the subject of a crime.      

Based on the provisions of the law, organizations, institutions, enterprises and other legal entities are not subjects of crime. In cases of a significant violation of labor protection rules at any enterprise, resulting in harm to human health, not the enterprise, but the official responsible for compliance with these rules will be held accountable (art. 152 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan "Violation of labor protection rules").      

However, the issue of the introduction of criminal liability of legal entities has been repeatedly raised in the theory of criminal law. The issue of liability of legal entities in criminal legislation remains unresolved and the discussion on this issue in the science of criminal law has not been removed from the agenda.       Only sane persons can be criminally responsible for a socially dangerous act and thus be the subject of a crime. Insane persons cannot be the subjects of crimes and are subject to criminal liability. Only compulsory medical measures may be applied to them, which are not a punishment for committing a socially dangerous act.       Sanity is a state of the human psyche in which a person at the time of committing a crime was able to recognize the nature of his behavior and direct it. This refers to the ability to understand not only the factual side of their actions, but also their social significance and at the same time consciously direct their actions, which is characteristic only of mentally healthy and mentally healthy people.      

Human behavior is determined and controlled by consciousness and will.      

Consciousness and will are mental functions that determine human behavior. They are always conditioned by objective reality, the conditions of the material life of society, and the social environment in which a person finds himself.       The ability to understand the factual side and the social significance of one's actions and at the same time consciously direct one's actions distinguishes a sane person from an insane one. A crime is committed under the influence of a whole range of external circumstances that play the role of causes and conditions of criminal behavior. But none of them affects a person, bypassing his consciousness. Being a thinking being, a person with a normal psyche is able to assess the circumstances in which he acts and, taking them into account, choose a behavior option that corresponds to his goals.      

At the same time, it is necessary to know that a person's sanity is determined at the time of the commission of a criminal act, that is, a forensic psychiatric examination should establish that at the time of the commission of the crime, the person was aware of the actual nature and social danger of his mental health, the level of his socio-mental development, and his socialization and directed his actions (inaction).      

The concept of sanity is closely related to the concept of guilt, which is crucial for the criminal responsibility of the subject. Only a sane person can be found guilty. Therefore, sanity is a prerequisite for guilt and responsibility.      

The ability to understand what is being committed and make an informed decision serves as the basis for finding a person guilty of committing an intentional or reckless crime, on which his duty to answer to the State for his actions is based. The inability to realize the nature of one's behavior or to direct it means the innocence of a person, such a person is recognized as insane and cannot be prosecuted.       The third mandatory feature of the subject of a crime is that a person reaches the age established by criminal law for criminal prosecution.     

In Part 2 of Article 14 of the Criminal Code, the legislator consolidated the constitutional provision on the equality of all before the law in order to implement the general legal principles in practice.

Commentary from 2007 to the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan from the Honored Worker of Kazakhstan, Doctor of Law, Professor, Academician of the Kazakhstan National Academy of Natural Sciences BORCHASHVILI I.Sh.                  

Date of amendment of the act:  08/02/2007 Date of adoption of the act:  08/02/2007 Place of acceptance:  NO Authority that adopted the act: 180000000000 Region of operation:  100000000000 NPA registration number assigned by the regulatory body:  167 Status of the act:  new Sphere of legal relations:  028000000000 Report form:  COMM Legal force:  1900 Language of the Act:  rus

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