방화죄에 있어 공공위험의 인식

Abstract

This paper studies the knowledge of public danger in crimes of arson. “The crime of public danger” is a type with regard to a social benefit and protection of the law. The representative crime of public danger is arson. Article 166(2) and Article 167(1) of the Criminal Act require “causes public danger.” Is the knowledge of public danger, besides of the intention of arson required to constitute arson? This paper develops and supports the argument that the knowledge of public danger is required for the crime of arson by comparing public danger-required argument with public danger-unrequired argument(Ⅲ). Anyhow, this paper deals with the concept of public danger as a threshold question of the requirement of the knowledge of public danger(Ⅱ). In other words, for example, Article 167(1) is required to ‘cause public danger’ as a constituent requirement providing, “A person who sets fire to and burns an object other than those objects mentioned in the preceding three Articles.” However, the definition of the ‘public danger’ is ambiguous. At last, in view of public danger-required argument, I intended to interpret the provision of arson(Ⅳ).