Mistakes of Law: Types and Its Effect to Negate the State of Mind Requirement

The purpose of the research is to classify mistakes of law depending on their impact on mens rea and culpability. Based on the analysis of legal norms, theoretical provisions and judicial practice, controversial issues of using the presumption of a knowledge about wrongfulness are identified, as well as the possibility of refuting this presumption. This is necessary because a person’s misconceptions regarding the content of the criminal law are structural elements of mens rea. As a consequence, they must be considered mitigating circumstances or defenses. Results. The author proves that mistakes of law should be considered as excusable (excluding guilt) or non-excusable (constituting guilt), depending on the type of criminal law prohibition. For malum in se crimes, the presumption of knowledge of the law is reasonable. Here, only partial mistakes of law are possible, which can be considered as mitigating circumstances. or malum prohibitum crimes, mistakes of law can be considered not only as mitigating circumstances, but also as defenses in the event that the person’s act either did not cause objective harm at all, or if there was nothing subject to social criticism in the person’s behavior.