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In criminal law, culpability, or being culpable, is a measure of the degree to which an agent, such as a person, can be held morally or legally responsible for action and inaction. It has been noted that the word, culpability, "ordinarily has normative force, for in nonlegal English, a person is culpable only if he is justly to blame for his ...
Preterintention in criminal law is a degree of culpability in which a defendant intended to commit a crime but also unintentionally committed a more serious crime. It derives from the legal Latin phrase praeter intentionem, which means "beyond intention". [1]
The law of the country, state, or locality where the matter under litigation took place. Usually used in contract law, to determine which laws govern the contract. / ˈ l ɛ k s ˈ l oʊ s aɪ / lex scripta: written law Law that specifically codifies something, as opposed to common law or customary law. liberum veto: free veto
The degree of culpability is determined by applying a reasonable-person standard. Criminal negligence becomes "gross" when the failure to foresee involves a "wanton disregard for human life" (see the definitions of corporate manslaughter and in many common law jurisdictions of gross negligence manslaughter).
Culpable and reckless conduct has no specific definition but deals with culpable and reckless acts which cause injury to others or create the risk of injury, with no effort made to mitigate this risk by the accused. While injury may occur, this would not be deemed as assault, as assault cannot be committed in a reckless or negligent manner.
In criminal law and in the law of tort, recklessness may be defined as the state of mind where a person deliberately and unjustifiably pursues a course of action while consciously disregarding any risks flowing from such action. [a] Recklessness is less culpable than malice, but is more blameworthy than carelessness.
Fault, as a legal term, refers to legal blameworthiness and responsibility in each area of law. It refers to both the actus reus and the mental state of the defendant.The basic principle is that a defendant should be able to contemplate the harm that his actions may cause, and therefore should aim to avoid such actions.
Philosophically, guilt in criminal law reflects a functioning society and its ability to condemn individuals' actions. It rests fundamentally on a presumption of free will, such as from a compatibilist perspective (as in the U.S.A.), in which individuals choose actions and are, therefore, subjected to the external judgement of the rightness or wrongness of those actions.