Pure material crimes in Iranian and English law

Abstract

Absolute criminal liability means the conviction and punishment of the perpetrator of a crime without the need to fully establish the mental element or the usual and required fault in the criminal process, whether the lack of necessity to establish fault is due to its elimination or assumption or its reduction in level. Accordingly, the purpose of the present study is to examine purely material crimes in the laws of Iran and England. The present study is a descriptive-analytical and comparative study. Accordingly, the type of research used was library and documentary research. The analysis of the information was done in the form of deductive reasoning and comparative reasoning. Although Iranian lawyers have sometimes and to a lesser extent addressed the issue in their works and writings due to their familiarity and connection with Western systems, the judicial authorities have not shown much sensitivity to this issue, so that, unlike the English judicial authorities, it can be claimed that in the scope of the Iranian criminal system, the aforementioned rule is completely strange and non-institutional. In any case, the most that can be inferred from the interpretations of lawyers and the few judicial decisions is that criminal liability without fault has been considered on a case-by-case basis and with a vague scope and content. Of course, like the English criminal system, where the scope of the crimes under discussion is extensive and legally and practically visible and determinable in different areas, Iranian criminal law also has numerous substantive laws in line with the existential philosophy of crimes without fault.