This paper is based loosely upon James C. Quarles’s article “Some Statutory Construction Problems and Approaches in Criminal Law”. In this article James questions the need for strict construction of criminal law in common law countries and whether courts should stick to rule of strict construction. Rule of strict construction of criminal statues has a long history, its origin is not very clear but it is said to have arisen even before the process of construction itself. A certain form of the doctrine might be found in Roman law, but it must have reached to its greatest usefulness in England because of the desirability of mitigating the severity of the early criminal law. Every jurisdiction has a body of criminal law consisting of “shall” and …show more content…
This is due to the poor draftsmanship, and also because of the innate frailties of human language. This in turn gives opportunities for defense counsel to discover or to create ambiguity in the meaning of a statute in order to save his client. The researcher of this paper finds this ambiguity and vagueness in statute as advantageous point because due to ambiguous and indefinite statutory language a lawyer gets an opportunity to win the case if he happens to interpret in a right way and convince the judges his way of interpreting the statute. But it is not appreciated as any skillful lawyer who is capable of manipulating words can help his client. That’s his duty one cannot blame him for doing so every lawyer would love to find loopholes in a statute in order to interpret accordingly and save his client from getting convicted. Legislatures should be more thoughtful and conscious when they are given a chance to construct an incomplete, ambiguous or vague …show more content…
Nullem crimen sine lege- no activity is punishable unless the sovereign has so declared, these two maxims are often used interchangeably as they don’t differ much in their fundamental philosophy. Question arises whether strict construction falls under the scope of the statute. The problem of vagueness presents this question. An individual’s life and liberty should be safeguarded. But James has already mentioned before one rule is that penal statutes should be constructed strictly but on the other hand a statute which fails to meet a certain type of requirement for definiteness of standard is not a legal basis for punishment. He says it is not feasible to accurately predict what to result would be by applying rule of strict construction of the penal statutes; there is no much difficulty in reading the statute and by readily applying it. It is usually applied when a criminal statute has more than just one meaning, and no meaning condemns the defendant’s conduct while the other include it. In a case like this one, the rule of strict construction requires the court to reject the meaning which would declare defendant’s conduct as illegal. If any problem arises in statutory construction to solve it we have to seek the intention of the legislature, and also consider very basic to construction of criminal statutes. It is the duty of the legislature to make laws when
In the Model Penal Code, section 2.01 discussed are the requirements of voluntary act; Omission as Basis of Liability; and Possesion as an Act. Mainly focusing on the “Voluntary” and “Involunatary” sections, first, stated is that “A person is not guilty of an offense unless his liability is based on conduct which includes a voluntary act or the omission to perform an act of which he is physically capable. Secondly, stated are acts that are not voluntary wihin the meaning of this section following as, “A reflex or convulsion; a bodily movement during unconsciousness or sleep; conduct during hypnosis or resulting from hypnotic suggestion; and a bodily movement that otherwise is not a product of the effort or determination of the actor, either conscious or habitual.” These requirements correspond with the Latin term “Actus Reus” which is a term used to describe a criminal act. Actus Reus is the wrongful dead that compromises the physical components of a crime. There is a fundamental principle stated in the case textbook that criminal liability always entails an “Actus Reus”, that is, “the commission of some voluntary act that is prohibited by law.”
One of the objections to this institution was that the adversarial principle is violated, this being a fundamental principle of criminal proceedings. But bear in mind that this principle should not be exercised the same in all cases, as simple cases where the facts have been recognized cannot be treated the same way as the most complex cases, where the defendants have not admi...
It is no surprise as to why the case Riggs v Palmer is such a renowned case, for this case tests the importance of many of the philosophers’ theories, especially on the validity of certain laws and the conflict between law and morality. This hard case has been used as a reference for many court decisions over the years and will be most likely used in the future as well. An inference can be made based on this case and the legal conflicts and issues that the judges faced when reaching their verdict. Those who commit the crime should not be rewarded by attaining what motivated them in the first place as the fruit of their crime, and in the event that such a crime occurs, judges must interpret the law in the same manner that the law makers intended
Facts: Two residents of Virginia, Mildred Jeter a colored woman and Richard Loving a white man, got married in the District of Columbia. The Loving's returned to Virginia and established their marriage. The Caroline court issued an indictment charging the Loving's with violating Virginia's ban on interracial marriages. The state decides, who can and cannot get married. The Loving's were convicted of violating 20-55 of Virginia's code.
of law has proved to be confusing to both juries and judges due to the
The purpose of this paper is to study the part of the Rome Statute which covers the Offences against the administration of justice. We refer to the Rules of Procedure and Evidence alongside with The Statute. The focus of this paper is to analyze the offences against the administration of justice ...
In relation to the express statutory exceptions to the general rule which is also known as ‘Reverse Onus Provisions’, i.e. one of the circumstances where an accused person bears the legal burden of proof in a criminal case, there is a possibility of these provisions falling foul of or being incompatible with Article 6(2) of the European Convention on Human Rights which provides that; ‘Everyone charged with a criminal offence shall be presumed innocent until proved guilty a...
Introduction This submission will discuss the problems created by the Doctrine of Judicial Precedent and will attempt to find solutions to them. Whereas, English Law has formed over some 900 years it was not until the middle of the 19th Century that the modern Doctrine was ‘reaffirmed’. London Tramways Co. Ltd V London County Council (1898). Law is open to interpretation, all decisions made since the birth of the English Legal System, have had some form of impact whether it is beneficial or not The term ‘Judicial Precedent’ has at least two meanings, one of which is the process where Judges will follow the decisions of previously decided cases, the other is what is known as an ‘Original Precedent’ that is a case that creates and applies a new rule. Precedents are to be found in Law Reports and are divided up into ‘Binding’ and ‘Persuasive’.
Parliament, the supreme law-making body, has an unrestricted legislative power, and the laws it passes cannot be set aside by the courts. The role of judges, in relation to laws enacted by Parliament, is to interpret and apply them, rather than to pass judgment on whether they are good or bad laws. However, evidence has shown that they have a tendency to deviate from their ‘real roles’ and instead formulate laws on their own terms. Thus the real role of a judge in any legal system continues to be a phenomenon questioned by many. We must consider whether they are “authoritarian law-makers, or if their profession makes them mere declarers of the law” . In this essay, I will argue the ways that judges do make law as well as discussing the contrary.
In this essay, I will describe the elements of a criminal act, address the law of factual impossibility, the law of legal impossibility, and distinguish whether the alleged crime in the scenario is a complete but imperfect attempt or an incomplete attempt. I will address the ethical or moralistic concerns associated with allowing a criminal defendant to avoid criminal responsibility by successfully asserting a legal defense such as impossibility. The court was clearly wrong to dismiss the charge against Jack of attempted murder of Bert.
United Kingdom is a country with a distinctive set of legal system. It is fairly different from other countries having civil law based legal systems. The legal system in the United Kingdom consists of various sources of law, where other civil law based countries rely only on a written set of law. European influences on the English Legal System came much later in near decades. This essay will aim to examine the development of the English Legal System by reviewing applications of various sources of law in the English Legal System furthermore to discuss the recent European influences on the law of England.
Firstly in this report, I will be giving the different definitions of rule of law by different philosophers; secondly, I will be applying the rule of law to the English Legal system and thirdly I will be explaining separation of powers with a focus on the impartial judiciary. Finally, I will be using cases to support every detailed point given.
Laws serve several purposes in the criminal justice system. The main purpose of criminal law is to protect, serve, and limit human actions and to help guide human conduct. Also, laws provide penalties and punishment against those who are guilty of committing crimes against property or persons. In the modern world, there are three choices in dealing with criminals’ namely criminal punishment, private action and executive control. Although both private action and executive control are advantageous in terms of costs and speed, they present big dangers that discourage their use unless in exceptional situations. The second purpose of criminal law is to punish the offender. Punishing the offender is the most important purpose of criminal law since by doing so; it discourages him from committing crime again while making him or her pay for their crimes. Retribution does not mean inflicting physical punishment by incarceration only, but it also may include things like rehabilitation and financial retribution among other things. The last purpose of criminal law is to protect the community from criminals. Criminal law acts as the means through which the society protects itself from those who are harmful or dangerous to it. This is achieved through sentences meant to act as a way of deterring the offender from repeating the same crime in the future.
The relationship between law and morality has been argued over by legal theorists for centuries. The debate is constantly be readdressed with new cases raising important moral and legal questions. This essay will explain the nature of law and morality and how they are linked.
The courts of England and Wales acknowledge that the above must be something of value, in order to amount to consideration. A valuable consideration in the perspective of the English La...