In order for your behaviour to be considered an offence, the statutory elements must be present. These also determine whether it is only an offence or whether you have already committed a criminal offence and will be prosecuted. In this article, we will look at these features in detail and tell you what is involved in the liability of natural and legal persons for misdemeanours.
The offence is a legal concept that refers to a set of elements that must be fulfilled in order to constitute an offence. It is therefore the conditions that must be met for a person’s conduct to qualify as an offence and to be punished for it.
An offence is defined by the Act on Liability for Offences and Procedure thereon as follows: ‘An offence is a socially harmful unlawful act which is expressly designated as an offence in the Act and which exhibits the characteristics laid down by law, unless it is a criminal offence‘. From this definition, the offence and its characteristics are thus derived:
Unlawfulness means that the conduct violates applicable laws. Every offence must be defined by law as an unlawful act. This means that there is a legal norm that states that certain conduct is prohibited or restricted.
Example: a driver parks in a handicapped space without having the appropriate placard. This act violates traffic laws that protect the reserved space for people with disabilities.
Exceptions are so-called circumstances precluding unlawfulness. These are situations where a person’s actions would be considered a misdemeanor, but are not. These include extreme emergency, necessary defence, permissible risk and legitimate use of a weapon.
Example: a driver stops in a handicapped parking space where parking is prohibited in order to be able to help a passing woman who is being physically assaulted as quickly as possible.
Tip: We have discussed necessary defence and extreme emergency in detail in our article.
Social harmfulness refers to the negative impact of an act on society as a whole or on an individual. Society is therefore the interest protected by the law. This characteristic helps to distinguish whether the act committed is a mere misdemeanour or a criminal offence, depending on the degree of social harm.
Example: a driver parks his vehicle in a place reserved for emergency vehicles (for example, in front of a fire hydrant). By doing so, he or she blocks access to emergency vehicles, which can endanger the lives and property of citizens in the event of an emergency. This offence is considered socially harmful as it can seriously affect the ability of firefighters to respond quickly and effectively to a fire.
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Explicit designation in law is a principle that requires a specific act to be explicitly stated and defined as an offence in the applicable law. This principle provides the clarity and predictability necessary for the fair application of the law.
Example: the Road Traffic Act provides in section 27(g) that ‘A driver shall not stop and stand at a level crossing, underpass or tunnel and at a distance of less than 15 metres in front of and behind them’.
A particular act must have all the characteristics listed in the law to constitute an offence. Thus, the law must clearly and specifically identify what conduct or behaviour is prohibited or restricted. This includes a description of the various elements that must be present in order for the conduct to qualify as an offence.
It is also the case that the law may set out specific circumstances or situations that must be met for the conduct to be considered unlawful. For example, if certain conduct is only permitted under certain conditions or situations.
Example: the law explicitly defines that it is prohibited to stand in a place that is designated for emergency vehicles. This rule is supplemented by signage indicating no standing.
The rule is that criminal law is a last resort and other law is used in preference (where sufficient). This means that if an offence can be punished as an offence, it will be treated as an offence. Thus, viewing the conduct as a criminal off ence and judging it under criminal law would only be resorted to if the offence law is not sufficient to the seriousness of the act performed.
Example: a person puts a perfume worth CZK 2 000 in his handbag in a perfumery and tries to leave without paying. In this case, it is an offence because the damage is less than CZK 10 000. However, if she tried to steal more perfume and the value exceeded CZK 10 000, then it would be a criminal offence.
Hint: When theft is a misdemeanor and when it is a felony is discussed in another article.
Liability for an offence means that a person can commit an offence and be punished for it. It is defined differently for natural and legal persons:
In order for a natural person to commit an offence, three conditions must be met:
Tip: Read more about the criminal liability of natural persons in our article.
A legal person is the perpetrator if:
Such a person may be:
A violation of a legal obligation imposed on a legal person shall also be deemed to be a violation of a legal obligation imposed on an organisational unit or other department which is part of the legal person.
Tip: Read more about corporate criminal liability in our next article.
The offence of misdemeanour is a key legal concept that determines the conditions that must be met for an act to be considered an offence. This framework includes unlawfulness, social harmfulness, express provision in the law and other specific features. The importance of the framework lies in the fact that it clearly defines when and how an act can be punished as an offence rather than a criminal offence. Liability for an offence is distinguished for natural persons and legal persons on the basis of specific criteria such as age, sanity and fault for natural persons or imputability and breach of legal duty for legal persons.
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Have you received a penalty or summons? The penalties can be high and it is not worth going through the process without consulting an attorney. Careful reasoning also pays off if you want to draw attention to someone else’s offence.
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