CHAPTER 2

JUSTIFYING CIRCUMSTANCES WHICH EXEMPT FROM

CRIMINAL LIABILITY
THE CIRCUMSTANCES AFFECTING CRIMINAL LIABILITY ARE:
1. Justifying circumstances (Art 11)
2. Exempting circumstances (Art 12) and other absolutory causes (Arts. 20;124, last par.;332;334;etc.)
3. Mitigating circumstances (Art 13)
4. Aggravating circumstances (Art 14)
5. Alternative circumstances
Imputability the quality by which an act may be ascribed to a person as its author or owner. It implies that the act
committed has been freely and consciously done and may, therefore, be put down to the doer as his very own.
Responsibility the obligation of suffering the consequences of crime. It is the obligation of taking the penal and
civil consequences of the crime.
Imputability, distinguished from responisibility
While imputability implies that a deed may be imputed to a person, responsibility implies that the person must take
the consequence of such a deed.
Meaning of guilt
Guilt is an element of responsibility, for a man cannot be made to answer for the consequences of a crime unless he
is guilty.
I.

JUSTIFYING CIRCUMSTANCES

They are:
1. Self-defense
2. Defense of relatives
3. Defense of strangers
4. Avoidance of greater evil or injury
5. Fulfilment of duty or exercise of right of office
6. Obedience to an order of a superior
There is no crime committed, the act being justified
Such persons are not criminals, as there is no crime
committed.
Burden of Proof
The circumstances mention in Article 11 are matters of
defense and it is incumbent upon the accused, in order
to avoid criminal liability, to prove the justifying
circumstances claimed by him to the satisfaction of the
court.
Basis: LACK OF CRIMINAL INTENT
Self-defense
- To prove by clear and convincing evidence
- The burden of proof rests upon the accused
- The accused must rely on the strength of his
own evidence and not on the weakness of that
for the prosecution.

Rights included in self-defense

- Includes not only the defense of the person or
body of the one assaulted but also that of his
rights, the enjoyment of which is protected by
law. It includes:
a. The right to honor. Hence, a slap on the face
is considered as unlawful aggression since the
face represents a person and his dignity. (Rugas
vs, People)
b. The defense of property rights can be invoked
if there is an attack upon the property although
it is not coupled with an attack upon the person
of the owner of the premises. All the elements
for justification must however be present.
(People v. Narvaez)
Reasons why penal law makes self-defense lawful.
- The law on self-defense embodied in any enal
system in the civilized world finds justification in
mans natural instinct to protect, repel, and save
his person or rights from impending danger or
peril;
- It is based on that impulse of self-preservation
- To the Classicists in penal law, lawful defense is
grounded on the impossibility on the part of the
state to avoid a present unjust aggression and
protect a person unlawfully attacked