Criminal Liability for Omissions in Latin America Leandro Dias & Marcelo Lerman Abstract Criminal liability for omissions is a highly developed issue in Latin Amer‐ ica. Unlike in many common law legal systems, these countries tend to have ‘good Samaritan’ rules and in some cases equate criminal liability for omissions with the usual legal regulation of positive action. This paper analyses these fundamental features of Latin-American legal systems and provides an overview of recent academic discussions. By way of example only, this paper uses translations of different legal rules from Argentina, Paraguay and Colombia. I. Introduction To analyse the main features of criminal liability for omissions in Latin American legal systems, it is necessary to begin with some brief concep‐ tual clarifications regarding omissions in general. It is well known that these issues are extraordinarily controversial at the philosophical level with even basic assumptions, such as the possibility of causing harm through omissions, being intensely debated. 1 To expect these fundamental problems to be conclusively resolved at the legal level would probably be placing too high a demand on legal systems. However, there should at least be a sufficiently neutral starting point to be able to understand what is meant by criminal liability for an omission without hindering the required ongoing discussion, i.e., without stipulating solutions for various contentious issues right from the start. For this purpose, Latin American criminal law theory frequently starts from a conceptualisation of omissions as the absence of certain bodily 1 For a recent overview, see Randolph Clarke, Omissions (OUP 2014). 393 1 2 3 https://doi.org/10.5771/9783748920717-393, am 14.10.2024, 15:45:12 Open Access – - https://www.nomos-elibrary.de/agb