scholarly journals I. Conflicts of Criminal Jurisdiction

2007 ◽  
Vol 56 (3) ◽  
pp. 659-666
Author(s):  
Colin Warbrick ◽  
Kate Brookson-Morris

The expansion of claims of extended territorial and extraterritorial criminal legislative jurisdiction and the increasing facility with which States are able to obtain custody over defendants by way of more effective extradition arrangements is leading to a new problem in transnational criminal law. The result of these developments is that more than one State may have legitimate jurisdiction to legislate for the same conduct and the courts of more than one State may be entitled to exercise judicial jurisdiction over those persons charged with crimes arising from that conduct. For prosecutors, the problem may present itself as one of prosecutorial efficiency—how may the case be proceeded with expeditiously, in particular, in which jurisdiction is a conviction most likely to be secured? Considerations such as the availability of witnesses or the admissibility of evidence may influence the prospects of conviction and prospective punishments may be a factor when deciding in which system prosecutors prefer the case to go ahead. Defendants have different perspectives. In many cases involving extradition to face a charge based on an exercise of extended jurisdiction, the defendant will be removed from the place where he lives and works to another State. There may be adverse consequences for him compared to facing a trial where he is usually located. Criminal proceedings abroad will be in an unfamiliar legal system; bail may be harder to obtain because of a perceived greater danger of flight; the impossibility to continue working during the period in which the trial is being prepared may impose financial hardship; defendants will be removed from their families and social networks for considerable periods.

2021 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 155-179
Author(s):  
Wojciech Zalewski

The introduction of social harmfulness (social danger) to Polish criminal law after the Second World War was politically motivated. For many, this circumstance was sufficient to formulate postulates about the necessity to remove this premise of criminal liability. Social harmfulness still remains controversial today. Before, criminal law was seen as a tool. Currently, it is to be an ultima ratio. It is clear that determining the essence of the crime and its nature, introducing into the law “what belongs to literature”, was necessary in the legal system of a totalitarian state, imposing its views and morals on society. In a legal system of a democratic state, a state ruled by law, a statutory ideological declaration regarding the essence of a crime seems redundant. However, changing the nomenclature is not enough here — there is a possibility of weakening the guaranteeing criminal law function. The social harmfulness premise contributes to the heterogeneity of jurisprudence, even in cases concerning serious crimes. The author is of the opinion that limiting the number of minor cases from the point of view of the state’s right to punish, which paralyzes the judiciary with their sheer number, should take place in a different way than introducing the social harmfulness of an act as a criterion determining the culpability. The currently adopted solution seems irrational and non-functional from the perspective of the legal certainty principle. A more appropriate move seems to be the assessing the advisability of prosecuting an act, i.e. by introducing and implementing the principle of opportunism in criminal proceedings.


2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 221-235
Author(s):  
Kazimierz Zgryzek

The author discusses the problem of excessive normative production in Polish legal system on the example of the changes implemented by amending the Code of Criminal Procedure. The article presents the changes implemented in the particular codes of criminal proceedings, starting with the first code of the independent Poland, the Code of 1928, followed by the amendments to that code, which remained in effect until December 31, 1969, as well as modified normative solutions remaining in effect prior to the change of the political and economic system, and concluding with the Code of Criminal Procedure which came into force on September 1, 1998. Such comparative study of the activity of the Polish Parliament between 1928 and 2017 reveals a severe excessive normative production with regard to criminal law in the recent years. The author argues that any normative changes to code regulations should be implemented only once the regulations subject to change have been tested in practice and have undergone an in-depth discussion in all groups that use the modified norms. As a positive example, the author enumerates the efforts of the Codification Commission of the Criminal Law, which resulted in the amendment of September, 2013, and compares it with the procedure of amending the Code of Criminal Procedure in March, 2016.


2016 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-108
Author(s):  
Jarosław Marciniak

Discontinuation of proceedings under Article 59a of the Criminal Code is a new institution in Polish criminal law. This article discusses selected issues relating to the premises for the application of Article 59a of the Criminal Code in practice. In view of the use by the legislator in Article 59a of the Criminal Code of concepts with vague meanings, their possible interpretations were proposed. It has been suggested that a rephrasing of the provision in question should be considered, in order to ensure the possibility of applying the said institution to a wider range of misdemeanours, as compensatory discontinuation is intended by the legislator to fulfil the redress function of proceedings and ensure the effectiveness and speed of criminal proceedings


2011 ◽  
Vol 60 (4) ◽  
pp. 1017-1038 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurens van Puyenbroeck ◽  
Gert Vermeulen

A critical observer would not deny that the practice of European Union (‘EU’) policy making in the field of criminal law in the past decade since the implementation of the Tampere Programme has been mainly repressive and prosecution-oriented.1 The idea of introducing a set of common (minimum) rules, guaranteeing the rights of defence at a EU-wide level, has not been accorded the same attention as the introduction of instruments aimed at improving the effectiveness of crime-fighting. What does this mean for the future of EU criminal policy? Will the EU succeed in the coming years in developing an area where freedom, security and justice are truly balanced? According to several authors, to date the EU has evolved in the opposite direction. As one observer put it:[I]f Procedural Criminal Law arises from the application of Constitutional Law, or indeed if it may be described as “a seismograph of the constitutional system of a State”, then as a consequence the Procedural Criminal Law of the European Union shows the extent of the Democratic Rule of Law, of the existence of a true “Rechtsstaat”, within an integrated Europe. This situation may be qualified as lamentable, as the main plank of the EU's criminal justice policy relates to the simplification and the speeding up of police and judicial cooperation—articles 30 and 31 of the Treaty of the EU—but without at the same time setting an acceptable standard for fundamental rights throughout a united Europe.2


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fernando Miró-Llinares

Nowadays it is easy to find public statements about the situation of freedom of expression in different democracies questioning the exercise of this right, perhaps as a result of the political tensions to which democratic states have been subjected in recent years. In this sense, Spain does not escape from these diagnoses. Both international indicators that try to measure the situation and evolution of freedom of expression in different States and academic scholars highlight the excessive criminalization of certain speeches that end up in criminal proceedings that sentence people who make offensive expressions, mainly through social networks. However, in order to reach this diagnosis it is necessary to put together all the symptoms that would lead us to that conclusion. Therefore, in this paper I analyze two main indicators that could shed more light on the state of freedom of expression in Spain and the impact that social networks have had on it. Firstly, I analyze the legislative evolution of expression offences since 1995, to evaluate the limits of certain expressions in order to reach the conclusion that, effectively, over the years the punitive scope of what cannot be expressed has been extended, thus limiting, at least in abstract, freedom of expression. Secondly, I analyze the jurisprudential evolution of all these crimes since 1995 to show that, indeed, the proliferation of sentences from 2015 to the present shows the increase in the criminalization of expressions that are made eminently through social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. To conclude, I reflect on the possibility that the latest absolutory sentence by the Constitutional Court of the singer of the band Def con Dos César Strawberry will increase the feeling that, from now on, all expression is admissible and, therefore, will increase free expression in general and, in particular, in social networks, since, it does not seem that our legislator is willing to rectify in its steps the excessive criminalization of certain offenses. I also reflect on the need to approach freedom of expression in a more empirical way and the need to evaluate not only the limitations that the law and judicial processes impose on freedom of expression, but also the extent to which citizens in general and, in particular, users of social networks, without the need to have gone through any criminal proceedings, have stopped expressing their opinions because only in this way will it be possible to determine the state of health of our right to freedom of expression.


2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 255-272
Author(s):  
Usammah Usammah

Memformalisasikan syariat Islam baik dalam ranah kehidupan bermasyarakat dan sosial, dalam bernegara dan berbangsa tidak jarang terjadi perdebatan, baik perdebatan sosial-politik maupun keagamaan. Perdebatan itu di samping menyangkut memahami ajaran agama dan hubungannya dengan negara-bangsa, juga dalam memahami sistem hukum yang ada dalam negera, lebih-lebih bahwa negera menganut sistem hukum positif yang lebih banyak dipengaruhi oleh hukum barat. Gagasan pemberlakuan hukum pidana Islam tidak serta merta dapat dijalankan dengan baik tanpa adanya legislasi dan pembentukan hukum pidana Islam materil sebagai hukum positif yang berlaku. Juga bahwa hukum pidana Islam adalah hukum publik yang membutuhkan kekuasaan negara baik dalam pembentukannya maupun dalam penegakannya. Dalam hubungannya dengan legislasi dan pembentukan hukum (qanun syariat Islam), maka hal yang sangat menarik adalah bagaimana menentukan bentuk jarimah dan uqubatnya baik yang termasuk dalam kategori hudud, qisas, dan takzir sebagai bagian dari sistem penegakan hukum syariat Islam. Takzir as a Punishment in Islamic Criminal Law The formalizing of Islamic Sharia Law both in the realm of social and community life and also in the state and national level. This issue is frequently debatable, both in socio-political as well as in religious matter. The debate is not only about understanding religious teachings and their relationship with the nation, but also about understanding the legal system applicable in the country, especially the country which apply a positive legal system that influenced by western law. The idea of enforcing Islamic Criminal Law cannot be carried out properly without the existence of legislation and the establishment of Islamic Criminal Law as a positive law that enforced. In addition, Islamic Criminal Law is a public law that requires state power both in its formation and in its enforcement. In relation to legislation and the formation of law (Qanun Sharia), the very interesting part is how to determine the form of rahmah and uqubat both are included in the hudud, qisas and takzir categories as part of the Islamic Sharia law enforcement system.


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