Willful Ignorance, Non-Imputable Ignorance and Principle of Legality

Abstract

This paper is a reconstruction of the debate generated in the XIII number of the Journal ‘Discusiones’ around willful ignorance in criminal law. It analyzes the authors’ opinions about the possibility of applying the Anglo-Saxon theory in legal systems of continental European tradition and the objections that are made in the absence of express legal provisions that establish how the conducts of those acting with willful or deliberate ignorance should be punished. Such concerns, linked to the principle of legality, will constitute the point from which it is proposed to analyze those cases considering a disposition of the argentinean criminal code. It regulates the assumptions that exclude a person from punishment if, at the time of the act, could not have understood the criminality of the conduct due to “non-imputable ignorance of fact”.