INTOXICATION, THE LAW AND CRIMINAL RESPONSIBILITY - A SPARKLING COCKTAIL AT TIMES - THE CASE-STUDIES OF CANADA AND GERMANY

The combination of intoxication and criminal responsibility has been a problem field for legal theory and practice for quite some time. Whil e it has been argued in certain contexts that intoxication reduces or denies criminal responsibility, elsewhere it has been reasoned that in toxicated offenders should be held as (or even more so) legally respon sible as sober ones. But even in legal systems where the criminal resp onsibility of intoxicated offenders is emphasized, legal theory and pr actice are confronted with the challenge of converting such values int o workable jurisprudence, since many intoxicated offenders naturally l ack one of the key premises for responsibility for a criminal act, nam ely mens rea. This article compares the very different legal philosoph ies and practices that have evolved around the issue of intoxication a nd criminal responsibility in Canada and Germany. While the Canadian s ystem has long and in a variety of ways tried to reconcile the inheren t tensions between the principles of legal culpability and the intent to punish intoxicated offenders in material law, the German system has produced a set of legal tools that allow for a pragmatic and ends-ori ented approach. This article concludes that the evolution and profile of these legal schemes is likely linked to the cultural status of alco hol and drinking in the respective system context.