This article examines the principles that should guide decisions on whether to criminalize certain conduct. Drawing on the works of Ashworth, Horder, Simester, von Hirsch, Duff, Husak, Hörnle, and other prominent scholars, it identifies and synthesizes the key principles of criminalization – the harm principle, the wrongfulness principle, the public wrong principle, and the principle of effective and proportional regulation. On this basis, the article proposes a seven-point checklist providing practical guidance for assessing the appropriateness of criminal sanctions for a given act. The checklist applies only those principles on which a significant number of legal theorists agree, reflecting the widely shared view that no single universal principle can answer all questions of criminalization. The article concludes that these principles are generally well reflected in Czech criminal law, but highlights concerns about overly broad statutory definitions and insufficient use of alternatives to criminalization. It suggests that further development of domain-specific criminalization theories and a more rigorous constitutional review of criminal offences could strengthen the coherence of Czech criminal law.
Šimon Otruba (Fri,) studied this question.