The crime of accepting a murder by order (article 148a § 1 of the criminal code) in terms of the amendment to the penal code of June 13, 2019

Abstract

The study addresses the issues of the newly-introduced amendment to the Criminal Code of June 13, 2019. This refers to the he offense of accepting an order to commit murder for payment (Ar-ticle 148a § 1 of the Criminal Code). There is no doubt that this is an unprecedented solution, giving the principle of protection of life and its scope a completely new meaning. It derives the protection of life from the current framework of prohibited behavior protecting this good, moving it to the plane of behavior that has never been punishable before, very distant from the effect intended by the perpetrator. This crime, which has already been highlighted in the course of work on the amendment of criminal law in numerous opinions formulated by representatives of the carnivore environment, raises many doubts, including those that respect the statutory construction of the fundamental prin-ciples of criminal law. The criminalization of behavior on such a distant foreground of violation of a legal good may in particular be a source of controversy in the context of the guarantee function of criminal law. The purpose of the analysis is to draw attention to some of the most important issues regarding this crime, including its legal nature, the justification for its typing, the structure of its statutory features, possible coincidences or offenses it may remain in, the difficulties this new construction may pose for judicial practice, and the need to introduce the discussed “modification of borders” criminal protection of human life.