Chapter 3 - The general prerequisite of criminal liability

Section 5 – Imputability

(1) Intent or negligence are prerequisites for criminal liability.

(2) Unless otherwise provided, an act referred to in this Code is punishable only as an intentional act.

(3) What is provided in subsection 2 applies also to an act referred to elsewhere in law for which the statutory maximum sentence is imprisonment for more than six months or on which the penal provision has been issued after this law entered into force.

Chapter 3 - The general prerequisite of criminal liability

Section 7 – Negligence

(1) The conduct of a person is negligent if he or she violates the duty to take care called for in the circumstances and required of him or her, even though he or she could have complied with it (negligence).

(2) Whether or not negligence is to be deemed gross (gross negligence) is decided on the basis of an overall assessment. In the assessment, the significance of the duty to take care, the importance of the interests endangered and the probability of the violation, the deliberateness of the taking of the risk and other circumstances connected with the act and the perpetrator are taken into account.

(3) An act which is deemed to have occurred more through accident than through negligence is not punishable.