Excusatory and Justificatory Defenses

It has already been seen that mens rea, in some shape or other, is a necessary element in every criminal offense. If this element is absent, the commission of an actus reus produces no criminal liability. Under the Thai Penal Code, the defenses are enumerated in Sections 65 to 79. Thai legal scholars make a distinction between the subjective defenses hayt yok wayn toht (i.e., excusatory defenses) and the objective defenses kwaam chop duay got măai (i.e., justificatory defenses) though this distinction is not expressly mentioned in the Code. An excuse is based on the defendants’ personality or mental health. Justificatory defenses focus on the surrounding circumstances in which the offense was committed. According to legal classification of the various conditions which in point of law exclude the presence of a guilty mind, there are five groups of cases of exemption which deserve mention. These are mental illness, minority, necessity, constraint, mistake of fact, and other extenuating circumstances.