The Impact of Mental and Nervous Abnormalities (Less than Insanity) on Criminal Responsibility, A Comparative Study of Iraqi and Arab Legislations

Abstract

Abstaining from criminal responsibility directly affects the suspect's insanity or mental impairment at the time of the commission of the act - or omission 1- constituting the crime. A mental impairment that denies criminal capacity, 2- Contemporary insanity or mental impairment to commit the act. The legislator equated mental and psychological disorders and considered that either of them is achieved by abstaining from criminal responsibility for a person. Mental disorder is synonymous with what the legislator considered crazy before the 2009 amendment. This mental disorder has a medical meaning related to the brain. But what is proven is that the legislator preferred to disclose insanity in its legal meaning in a way that includes all forms of disturbance of a person's mental powers, causing him to lose awareness or freedom of choice. For this reason, the judge does not adhere to the exact medical meaning of insanity and what that necessitates in the search for mental illnesses and their types. Rather, it suffices to verify the disappearance of awareness or freedom of choice in the person when committing the crime. It equals that the loss of awareness or choice is due to a disease that affects the brain "which is madness in its medical sense," or a defect related to the person's nervous system or mental health disorder.