ROLUL LEGITIMEI APĂRĂRI ÎN EXCLUDEREA CARACTERULUI PENAL AL FAPTELOR
THE ROLE OF SELF-DEFENSE IN EXCLUDING THE CRIMINAL CHARACTER OF ACTS

Summary/Abstract: Self-defense is a fundamental legal institution in criminal law, as it is designed to exclude the criminal nature of an act and, implicitly, the criminal liability of the person who committed it, provided that the person has acted to protect himself or herself against attack. Regulated by Article 36 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Moldova, self-defense is a cause of exclusion of criminal wrongdoing, which implies a justified response to an unjust attack, with the aim of protecting the fundamental values of the individual, such as life, physical and mental integrity.The basis of self-defense is based on the existence of an imminent or actual attack that endangers the victim's life, bodily integrity or other fundamental rights. Thus, the urgency and genuineness of the attack is the first essential condition for invoking a legitimate defense. At the same time, the reaction of the person attacked must be proportionate to the intensity of the attack, which means that the means of defense used must be appropriate to the danger to which he or she is exposed. The proportionality of the response constitutes an important limitation of the self-defense, as overreaction may make it impossible to invoke this ground for excluding criminal liability.Also, self-defense presupposes that the person attacked has no other options to avoid the attack or to evade the danger, and this aspect emphasizes the necessity of the defense as an element determined by the impossibility of avoiding the conflict by other means. Thus, any conduct that could have allowed the victim to avoid the attack without resorting to a defensive reaction would preclude the application of self-defense.As regards the effects on criminal liability, self-defense leads to the exclusion of the criminal nature of the act, since it can no longer be considered a crime, as it is justified. However, it is for the courts to assess, in each individual case, whether the circumstances of the self-defense have been respected, including the proportionality of the reaction and the conditions in which it took place. Thus, self-defense plays a crucial role in criminal law, as it aims to protect the individual's right to defend his or her life and integrity, within the limits provided by law, and the correct application of this legal institution guarantees the exclusion of criminal liability in cases where actions are justified by the need to defend oneself against an attack.

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