Exaggerated Reckless Disregard of Human Life in Road Traffic is Murder

Article presents the case of »Berlin drag race road accident«, in which the Fe- deral Supreme Court of Germany (BGH) created a set of value decision bullet points on which a court should rely when valuing the most extreme negative behaviours in road traffic, especially in the field of mens rea. The core of the article presents arguments that require the court to construct legal intent (do- lus eventualis) with using the circumstances of exposure to self-risk of harm. When this self-hazardous behaviour results in damage to a criminal law good, the court should value the volitional component of dolus eventualis as proven. The other field that requires a construct of dolus eventualis is perpetrator’s mo- tives for the act, in the case that they were considered as utterly discarding (hi- ghering ones self-worth through winning the illegal drag race) from the view of the court, the court should consider that the perpetrator acted with legal intent (dolus eventualis). In the article, the authors also research the problems of meeting qualifying circumstances that constitute murder with legal intent (dolus eventualis). There is also a small-scale comparative research in the field of road traffic criminal law between German and Slovenian road traffic crimi- nal law. Slovenian Penal Code deficits in the field of road traffic criminal law are pointed out.

Key words: criminal substantial law, dolus eventualis, murder, road traffic, illegal drag races, comparative law analysis.