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MORDECHAI KREMNITZER — KHALID GHANAYIM (2) Manslaughter as the basic homicide, defined as killing with the mental element of (spontaneous) intention or recklessness in the form of indifference or rashness toward causing the death, and punished by 20 years imprisonment as maximum sentence. (3) Culpable homicide by negligence, punished by 3 years imprisonment as maximum sentence. THE NEW LAW The new law includes 5 homicide offenses: Murder as basic offense, aggravated Murder, homicide with diminished liability, homicide by rashness, and the offense of homicide by negligence. The new law seeks to serve and emphasize two principles: The first principle is the special importance of the value of human life and its special severe infringement; and the second principle is the culpability of the offender. It also reflects an approach to the principle of legality, as to the division of labor between the Legislator and the Judiciary, namely that the first is entrusted with the task of making generalizations on degrees of severity and leniency up to the point of hindering individual justice. Individual justice is entrusted in the hands of the Judiciary. The principle of legality favored a list of aggravated circumstances anda clear formulation of them avoiding ambiguous terms like bad or base motives. The expressive function is served through the label murder and the stigma it carries, the special severe punishments of life imprisonment and even more so — mandatory life imprisonment. Focusing on murder (violating the value of human life) and not on aggravated murder enables the legislator to express a clear view on the importance of the protected interest of human life as such. A focus on aggravated circumstances, on the other side, dilutes this message since the sanction expresses not only the severity of life deprivation but also the aggravating circumstances. The same spirit explains the relative heavy punishment provided for the cases of homicide with diminished liability'* 20 years of imprisonment for three cases of this category and 15 years for one.!* The same attitude is reflected in the 12 years of imprisonment for killing by rashness. The principle of culpability is expressed in the possibility of avoidance from aggravated murder when the totality of the case-circumstances signifies a 13 On this offense, see below text belongs to note 24. 4 See Mordechai Kremnitzer — Khalid Ghanayim, Tötung des Haustyrannen: Minderschwere Totung, in Marc Engelhart — Hans Kudlich — Benjamin Vogel (eds.) Festschrift fiir Ulrich Sieber, Berlin, Dunker & Humblot, 2021, 244; Ghanayim, The Reform of Homicide Offences. + 148 «
