ANALYSIS OF THE OBJECTIVE PART AND COMPOSITION OF THE CRIME AIMED AT VIOLATING PUBLIC ORDER AND PEACE

Abstract

The establishment of criminal liability, as well as the direct prohibition of human behavior that causes or may cause harm, constitutes one of the most important and complex tasks of criminal law. This mission derives from the fundamental need of society to protect its internal order and essential social relations, using the specific instruments of criminal law, considered the last and most energetic means of legal defense. In the doctrine of criminal law, an essential theoretical distinction has crystallized between the de facto basis and the de jure basis of criminal liability, each having its role in the process of establishing guilt and holding the person accountable. The de facto basis of criminal liability presupposes the finding of the existence of a concrete, prejudicial act, committed in the real world. This involves the identification and exact description of the conduct and the consequence produced or threatened, as well as the establishment of all elements related to the objective side of the crime: the illicit action or inaction, the socially dangerous consequence, the causal link, the means, the manner and the circumstances in which the act was committed. However, the mere presence of an act that corresponds to the objective characteristics of a crime is not sufficient to engage the criminal liability of a person. Criminal law does not only sanction the external manifestation of the conduct, but requires a complex, multidimensional analysis, which also includes other elements indispensable for the legal qualification. Consequently, there is a need to establish the de jure basis of criminal liability, which consists in determining the existence of all the constituent elements of the crime, in the sense fully defined by criminal legislation. This basis is much more comprehensive, because it involves not only verifying the objective side, but also the subjective side, the object of the crime, the subject of the crime and all the essential signs provided for by the incrimination norm. Only when all these elements are met can the existence of the crime be confirmed in the legal sense and, implicitly, the person can be held criminally liable. Thus, the composition of the crime becomes the true de jure basis for criminal liability, which is expressly provided for and enshrined by the legislation in force, more precisely by the provisions of art. 51 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Moldova, which enshrines the principle according to which criminal liability can be incurred only if all the constitutive elements of the crime are present. In this regard, the doctrine emphasizes that, in the absence of any essential element of the composition, criminal liability cannot be established, even if the act itself presents a prejudicial appearance.