Article 20 Spanish Criminal Code: Grounds excluding criminal liability

The following are exempt from criminal liability:

1. Whoever, at the time of committing the criminal offence, is unable, by reason of any psychical anomaly or disturbance, to understand the unlawfulness of the act or to act in accordance with that understanding.

A transitory mental disorder shall not exempt from punishment where it was brought about by the subject with the purpose of committing the offence, or where the subject foresaw or ought to have foreseen its commission.

2. Whoever, at the time of committing the criminal offence, is in a state of full intoxication through the consumption of alcoholic beverages, toxic drugs, narcotics, psychotropic substances or others producing analogous effects, provided that such state was not sought with the purpose of committing the offence and that its commission was not foreseen or ought not to have been foreseen, or is under the influence of a withdrawal syndrome, by reason of dependence upon such substances, which prevents that person from understanding the unlawfulness of the act or from acting in accordance with that understanding.

3. Whoever, by reason of suffering alterations of perception from birth or from infancy, has a seriously altered awareness of reality.

4. Whoever acts in defence of the person or rights of himself or herself or of another, provided that the following requirements are met:

First. An unlawful aggression. In the case of the defence of property, an unlawful aggression shall be deemed to be an attack upon it which constitutes a criminal offence and places it in serious danger of imminent deterioration or loss. In the case of the defence of the dwelling or its outbuildings, an unlawful aggression shall be deemed to be improper entry into them.

Second. Rational necessity of the means employed to prevent or to repel the aggression.

Third. Absence of sufficient provocation on the part of the defender.

5. Whoever, in a state of necessity, in order to avoid harm to himself or herself or to another, injures a legal interest of another person or infringes a duty, provided that the following requirements are met:

First. That the harm caused is not greater than that which is sought to be avoided.

Second. That the situation of necessity has not been intentionally brought about by the subject.

Third. That the person in need is not, by reason of trade or office, under an obligation to sacrifice himself or herself.

6. Whoever acts impelled by insuperable fear.

7. Whoever acts in fulfilment of a duty or in the legitimate exercise of a right, trade or office.

In the cases of the first three numbers, the security measures provided for in this Code shall be applied where appropriate.

Working translation prepared by Société Juridique from the consolidated Spanish text published by the Official State Gazette. It has no official status: the only authoritative version is the Spanish original, available at the Official State Gazette and reproduced verbatim in our Spanish-language entry for this provision. Source: Organic Law 10/1995 of 23 November, the Spanish Criminal Code.