Criminal Law on ExcellentWiki - Legal Encyclopedia

EU Criminal Law

Sun, 05 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Development of EU Competence in Criminal Matters

Criminal law was historically excluded from the European Community’s competence, which focused on economic integration under the Treaty of Rome. The Maastricht Treaty (1992) introduced the Third Pillar — Justice and Home Affairs — creating intergovernmental cooperation on criminal matters outside the Community method. The Third Pillar operated on unanimity in the Council and limited roles for the Commission, European Parliament, and Court of Justice, producing Framework Decisions that lacked direct effect. The Amsterdam Treaty (1999) transferred some areas to the Community Pillar and incorporated the Schengen acquis, but criminal law cooperation remained primarily intergovernmental.

Substantive Chinese Criminal Law

Sun, 05 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Sources and Development of Chinese Criminal Law

The Criminal Law of the People’s Republic of China was first enacted in 1979 as part of the post-Mao legal reconstruction and was comprehensively revised by the 1997 Criminal Code, which remains the primary source of substantive criminal law. The 1997 Code expanded the 1979 Code from 192 to 452 articles, abolished the analogy system, codified the principle of legality, and systematically organised criminal offences in a General Part (Articles 1-101) and a Special Part (Articles 102-452). The Code has been amended eleven times, with the most significant amendments being the Eighth Amendment (2011), which reduced the scope of the death penalty and introduced community correction; the Ninth Amendment (2015), which further reduced capital offences and expanded terrorism and corruption provisions; and the Eleventh Amendment (2020), which lowered the age of criminal responsibility. The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC) exercises legislative authority over criminal amendments, typically issuing a Criminal Law Amendment every few years.

Substantive English Criminal Law

Sun, 05 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Sources and Structure

English criminal law remains uncodified, deriving from both common law (judge-made law developed through precedent) and statute. The absence of a comprehensive criminal code distinguishes England from virtually all other common law and civil law jurisdictions. The Law Commission has advocated codification since its establishment in 1965, producing a draft Criminal Code in 1989 and several subsequent codification projects, but Parliament has enacted only piecemeal reforms. Major statutory codifications include the Theft Acts 1968-1978 (consolidating property offences), the Criminal Damage Act 1971, the Sexual Offences Act 2003 (comprehensively reforming sexual offences), the Fraud Act 2006 (creating a general fraud offence), and the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007. The result is a hybrid system in which general principles — definitions of intention, recklessness, causation, and defences — remain largely governed by common law, while specific offences are defined by statute.

Substantive French Criminal Law

Sun, 05 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Sources and the Principle of Legality

French criminal law (droit pénal) is codified in the Code Pénal, enacted in its current form by the Law of 22 July 1992 and effective since 1 March 1994, replacing the Napoleonic Code Pénal of 1810. The principle of legality (principe de légalité criminelle), codified in Article 111-3 of the Code Pénal and derived from Article 8 of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen of 1789, provides that no one may be punished except by virtue of a law enacted prior to the offence and legally applicable. The hierarchy of criminal norms establishes that crimes and délits must be defined by statute (loi), while contraventions may be defined by regulation (règlement). The principle of strict construction (principe d’interprétation stricte de la loi pénale), codified in Article 111-4, requires that penal statutes be interpreted narrowly and prohibits the extension of criminal provisions by analogy.

Substantive German Criminal Law

Sun, 05 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Sources and the Basic Law Framework

German criminal law (Strafrecht) is codified in the Strafgesetzbuch (StGB), which traces its origins to the Criminal Code of the German Empire of 1871 (Reichsstrafgesetzbuch), substantially reformed in 1975 and amended numerous times since. The StGB is divided into a General Part (Allgemeiner Teil, §§ 1-79b) and a Special Part (Besonderer Teil, §§ 80-358). The General Part sets out fundamental principles, the structure of liability, theories of punishment, rules on attempt, participation, and the system of sanctions. The Special Part defines specific offences, generally organised by the legal interest (Rechtsgut) protected. Constitutional constraints are paramount: Article 103(2) of the Basic Law (Grundgesetz, GG) codifies the principle of nulla poena sine lege, requiring that an act be declared punishable by law before it was committed. Article 1(1) GG guarantees human dignity, which the Federal Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht) has held requires that punishment be proportionate and respect the offender’s personhood.

Substantive Russian Criminal Law

Sun, 05 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Sources and the 1996 Criminal Code

Russian criminal law is codified in the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (Ugolovny Kodeks Rossiyskoy Federatsii, UK RF), adopted in 1996 and effective from 1 January 1997, replacing the Soviet-era Criminal Code of the RSFSR of 1960. The Code reflects the post-Soviet transition from socialist legality to a rule-of-law framework, though it retains structural features of Soviet criminal law doctrine. The Code is divided into a General Part (Articles 1-104) establishing fundamental principles, the grounds for criminal liability, the system of punishments, and rules for their application, and a Special Part (Articles 105-360) defining specific offences organised into six sections and 19 chapters according to the object of criminal protection. The Code has been amended extensively, with the most significant recent amendments occurring in 2022-2023 in connection with the conflict in Ukraine.

Substantive US Criminal Law

Sun, 05 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Sources of Substantive Criminal Law

Criminal law in the United States operates under a dual sovereignty system: federal criminal law derived from Congress’s enumerated powers coexists with fifty distinct state criminal codes. The American Law Institute’s Model Penal Code (MPC), promulgated in 1962, has been the most influential template for state criminal codification, adopted in whole or substantial part by 37 states. The MPC’s comprehensive approach — defining general principles of liability, grading offences, and standardising terminology — transformed American criminal law from a patchwork of common law doctrines into a more systematic body of law. Federal criminal law remains uncodified in the MPC sense, scattered through Title 18 of the United States Code (USC) and over 300 additional federal statutes, with no general part comparable to the MPC.