Bipolar Personality Disorder from the Viewpoint of the Criminal Liability

From the view of Iran's criminal law, a person suffering from the mental disorder, to be considered as insane, must lack the will and distinguishing power. This general principle is common in all mental disorders. However, determining how many mental disorders divest will and distinguishing power is not an easy job. A bipolar personality disorder is one of the mental disorders which is inflicted in many misconceptions and challenges from the view of determining criminal liability. In this paper, by investigating the criminal responsibility of patients suffering from the bipolar personality disorder, we conclude that this disorder cannot be a factor to eliminate criminal liability except for hududd crimes. However, in other crimes, it can be considered a factor to moderate the criminal liability.