Criminal Law and Procedure 733523
|
|
|
|
Description
There are many ways in which to construct the field of criminal law: it is related to public law in as much as it concerns the relation between the state and the citizen in democratic societies; it is related to the law of obligations (contracts and torts) but is concerned with public rather than private obligations; and it is related to legal theory in as much as it concerns the nature of the law that attributes responsibility. With this in mind, the field of criminal law is typically divided into substantive criminal law (the definition, prohibition and regulation of criminal activity by law) and criminal procedure (the processes, rules and principles of law governing the institutions of investigation, prosecution, trial and appeal within criminal jurisdictions). The central question is thus the question of responsibility. As such, this subject studies the legal categories, judicial culture, and socio-historical contexts through which the contemporary attribution of criminal responsibility takes place.
The specific topics covered include:
- the formal structure of substantive criminal law;
- the institutional arrangements of criminal procedure and their respective rationales;
- substantive offences – includes a selection of offences against the person and offences against property;
- defences
- modes of criminal responsibility
Throughout each of these specific topics, the approach is to study the theories, principles and practices of criminal law and procedure.
PreRequisites
Legal Method and Reasoning, Principles of Public Law, Torts, Obligations, Dispute Resolution, Constitutional Law, Contracts, Property, Legal Theory.
