IRRETRIEVABLE FACIAL DISFIGUREMENT: AN ELEMENT OF A CRIME IN NEED OF CLARIFICATION
An irretrievable disfiguration of the face is a unique symptom of grievous bodily harm, which is to be assessed with consideration of two criteria, medical and aesthetic ones, and this approach has been preserved in criminal law since the mid-nineteenth century. The lack of clear legal confines in the concept of “disfigurement” leads to contradictions in the judicial practice, the same circumstances being perceived by different judges differently: either as an evidence of the face having been disfigured by the injury caused or as an evidence that the injury has not disfigured the face. The author argues that it is advisable to impose obligation on forensic medical experts to assess the physiological factors accompanying the damage of the face and to state whether the said damage has disfigured the face of the victim in terms of the number and volume of changes caused