scholarly journals The Model Penal Code and the Dilemma of Criminal Law Codification in the United States

Author(s):  
Stephen C. Thaman
2000 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 433-440 ◽  
Author(s):  
Markus Dirk Dubber

Students of Anglo-American criminal law, historians included, have traditionally had very little to say about criminal codes. This omission is startling in the face of ongoing efforts to codify criminal law since the late eighteenth century, not only in England and the United States, but also in Canada and India. The only historical study of criminal codification in the United States is a survey article that is, strictly speaking, not about codification at all, but about the great men who made codification possible, in particular the forefathers of Herbert Wechsler, the main drafter of the Model Penal Code. The Model Penal Code itself gave no clues as to its historical antecedents, if any. It is regarded, and portrayed itself, as having invented the wheel by starting from scratch, the raw material of the common law.


Author(s):  
Beth Van Schaack

This chapter identifies three unfortunate gaps in the United States’ federal penal code: The United States lacks a crimes against humanity statute, the war crimes statute has a limited jurisdictional reach and does not conform to US obligations under the Geneva Conventions, and the code lacks express mention of superior responsibility. These gaps significantly hinder the reach of the United States’ prosecutorial authorities and have led to instances of impunity, and incomplete accountability, where perpetrators within US jurisdiction cannot be prosecuted for their substantive crimes and must be dealt with through immigration and other remedies. The chapter then evaluates various proposed amendments to Title 18, drawing upon previous bills, international criminal law, and other federal statutes. It closes by arguing that discrete statutory amendments would enable the United States to exercise leadership in atrocities prevention and response without increasing the risk that US personnel will be subjected to litigation overseas.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
R. Barry Ruback

In the past 30 years, economic sanctions following criminal convictions have been more frequently imposed. This trend toward increasing the use of economic sanctions is likely to continue because of increased costs, increased retribution, a desire for intermediate punishment, and concern for the losses incurred by victims and their families. The first chapter provides a brief historical introduction to the concept of economic sanctions and an overview of the current status of economic sanctions in the United States. An overview of the advantages and disadvantages of economic sanctions, from both economists and lawyers, follows. There is then a brief discussion of the purposes of sentencing and reference to the economic sanctions section of the Model Penal Code: Sentencing The chapter ends with an overview of the book.


Author(s):  
George P. Fletcher

This book is an invitation to readers interested in the future of international cooperation to master the 12 basic dichotomies of international criminal law. The book foresees a growing interest in international order and cooperation following the current preoccupation, in Europe as well as the United States, with national self-interest. By emphasizing basic dichotomies, for example, acts vs. omissions and causation vs. background conditions, the book reinforces the jurisprudential foundations of international criminal law and also provides an easy way to master the details of the field.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (5) ◽  
pp. 833-846
Author(s):  
Tatjana Hörnle

AbstractThe article describes the #MeToo-movement in the United States and Germany and discusses the merits and problems of this social phenomenon. It highlights the fact that some features of #MeToo (blaming and sanctioning wrongdoers) resemble those of criminal punishment and thus require careful justification. In the final part, the author examines the impact of the #MeToo-movement on criminal law reform.


2011 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 297-302
Author(s):  
Benjamin L. Berger

The three articles offered in this forum on the early history of criminal appeals do us the great service of adding much of interest on this important but neglected issue in the development of Anglo–North American criminal procedure. The opaqueness of the legal history of criminal appeals stands in stark contrast to their centrality and apparent naturalness in contemporary criminal justice systems in England, Canada, and the United States. These three papers look at the period leading up to and immediately following the creation of the first formalized system of what we might call criminal appeals, the establishment of the Court of Crown Cases Reserved (CCCR) in 1848. This key period in the development of the adversary criminal trial was marked by both a concerted political effort to codify and rationalize the criminal law and by profound structural changes in the management of criminal justice.


Author(s):  
Viktoriya Sizova

The article is devoted to the study of the evolution, development and current state of the us criminal law system. The author considers the characteristic features inherent in modern American criminal law, its features, as well as the practical value and significance in relation to the continuity of positive experience.


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