Omission to Act under Thai Laws 
Principle of Criminal law is that a person shall be criminally liable only when such person commits an act intentionally. However, an omission to act can become criminally liable as well. How come people are criminally liable without do nothing!
Let’s see example
- Peter is walking near a river, and suddenly a boy is drowning. Peter can help him, but he just ignores him. The boy finally is dead.
- Unfortunately, the boy drowning is Peter’s son. He does not like him, so he just ignores him. The boy is dead.
Should Peter be criminally liable? If this situation happens in real life, I believe that almost everyone would like to see some punishment to Peter.
For the first example, Peter is criminally liable for a petty offence while the second one, Peter is considered as a murderer, and he shall be punished with death, imprisonment for life, or imprisoned as from fifteen years to twenty years. What make him get a big different punishment while he did nothing at the same situation? Under law, Peter has acted by omission, and his duty will lead him to the degree of punishment. In the first example, Peter has no duty to protect a boy’s life. It’s just a general duty of a good person to help people while Peter in the second one has a specific duty to protect his son according to Section 1564 of Civil and Commercial Law stating that Parents are bound to maintain their children and to provide proper education for them during their minority.
Therefore, an act shall also include any consequence brought about by the omission to do an act which must be done in order to prevent such consequence.
A specific duty to prevent some consequence may occur from different cases, such as
- The duty from legitimate law
Law provides clearly that people has a duty to do, such as Civil and Commercial Code, Section 1563 “Children are bound to maintain their parents”
For example, a son does not give food and water to his old father who cannot move himself until the father dies. This omission to act is not different from the son shoots his father by himself.
2. The duty from specific acceptance
Such as, a nursery nurse, a person who takes care of the safety of pool service user
3. The duty form previous acts
For example, a man takes a blind to cross the street, but he leaves the blind at the halfway in order to get on the bus. The blind is bumped by a car. The man is criminal liable as the person who causes bodily harm because he has a duty to take the blind to the other side of the street. His duty is not completed.
4. The duty from special relationship
A man and a woman are not married legally, but both stay together as husband and wife. Although their duties are not bound by family law, they have to help each other.
So, when we talk about the omission to act under Thai law, we have to focus on the duty. If the person has a specific duty to do to prevent consequence, he does not do so. He is criminal liable by his omission. On the contrary, if his duty is general duty, he may be punished for a petty offence.
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