Individual criminal responsibility

Dominican Republic

Dominican Republic - Constitution 2015 EN

Title II: On fundamental rights, guarantees and duties
Chapter I: Fundamental rights
Section I: Civil and political rights

Article 40: Right to liberty and personal security
All people have a right to liberty and personal security. Accordingly:
14. No one is criminally responsible for that done by another;

Dominican Republic - Constitution 2015 ES

Article 40: Right to liberty and personal security
All people have a right to liberty and personal security. Accordingly:

• Protection from unjustified restraint 1. No one may be sent to prison or denied his liberty without an order caused and written by the appropriate judge, except in cases of flagrante delicto;

2. Every authority that exercises measures to deprive liberty is obligated to identify himself.

3. All people, at the moment of their detention, shall be informed of their rights;

• Right to counsel 4. All detained people have the right to communicate immediately with their families, lawyer, or trusted people, who have the right to be informed of the location of the detained person and of the reasons for the detention;

• Protection from unjustified restraint 5. All people deprived of their liberty shall be submitted to the appropriate judicial authority within forty-eight hours of their detention or freed. The appropriate judicial authority shall notify the interested person, within the same time period, of the decision dictated to that effect.

6. All people deprived of their liberty without cause or without the legal formalities or outside of cases provided for by law, shall be immediately freed at his request or at that of any other person.

7. All people may be freed once the imposed penalty has been completed or an order for freedom has been given by the appropriate authority;

8. No one may be submitted to methods of coercion unless by his own making ;

9. The methods of coercion, restrictive of personal liberty, are of special character and their application should be proportional to the danger that they attempt to guard against;

• Rights of debtors 10. Physical constraint may not be established for debts that do not come from an infraction against the penal laws;

11. Every person that has a detained person under their guard is obligated to present him as soon as is required by the appropriate authority;

12. The transfer of any detained person from a prison to another location without an order written and caused by the appropriate authority is strictly prohibited;

14. No one is criminally responsible for that done by another;

• Principle of no punishment without law 15. No one can be obligated to do that which the law does not order nor kept from doing that which the law does not prohibit. The law is equal for all: it may only order that which is just and useful for the community and it may not prohibit more than what is harmful.

16. Punishments that deprive freedom and the means of security shall be oriented towards reeducation and social reinsertion of the condemned person and may not consist of forced work;

17. In the exercise of the sanctioning power established by law, the Public Administration may not impose sanctions that implicate the deprivation of liberty in a direct or subsidiary form.

Rome Statute

Article 25 Individual criminal responsibility

1. The Court shall have jurisdiction over natural persons pursuant to this Statute.

2. A person who commits a crime within the jurisdiction of the Court shall be individually responsible and liable for punishment in accordance with this Statute.

3. In accordance with this Statute, a person shall be criminally responsible and liable for punishment for a crime within the jurisdiction of the Court if that person:

(a) Commits such a crime, whether as an individual, jointly with another or through another person, regardless of whether that other person is criminally responsible;

(b) Orders, solicits or induces the commission of such a crime which in fact occurs or is attempted;

(c) For the purpose of facilitating the commission of such a crime, aids, abets or otherwise assists in its commission or its attempted commission, including providing the means for its commission;

(d) In any other way contributes to the commission or attempted commission of such a crime by a group of persons acting with a common purpose. Such contribution shall be intentional and shall either:

(i) Be made with the aim of furthering the criminal activity or criminal purpose of the group, where such activity or purpose involves the commission of a crime within the jurisdiction of the Court; or

(ii) Be made in the knowledge of the intention of the group to commit the crime;

(e) In respect of the crime of genocide, directly and publicly incites others to commit genocide;

(f) Attempts to commit such a crime by taking action that commences its execution by means of a substantial step, but the crime does not occur because of circumstances independent of the person's intentions. However, a person who abandons the effort to commit the crime or otherwise prevents the completion of the crime shall not be liable for punishment under this Statute for the attempt to commit that crime if that person completely and voluntarily gave up the criminal purpose.

3 bis. In respect of the crime of aggression, the provisions of this article shall apply only to persons in a position effectively to exercise control over or to direct the political or military action of a State.

4. No provision in this Statute relating to individual criminal responsibility shall affect the responsibility of States under international law.