Talk: Criminal law

From open-encyclopedia.com - the free encyclopedia.

Someone qualified the discussion in the article about mala in se vs. mala prohibita with:

Jurisdictions still recognizing common law usually [recognize mala in se vs. mala prohibita distinction]

What sense of "common law" are they referring to? And what jursidictions used to recognize common law but don't anymore? I can't think of any. -- SJK

They are referring to the common law basis of criminal law, as opposed to those jurisdictions that have replaced parts of the common law with statutory provision in various Criminal Codes. Usually the basis of most US criminal law is the common law of England circa 1750 (this is the version of criminal law they teach in most US law schools as most state jurisdictions deviate from this basis only in some respects). Alex756 21:33 16 May 2003 (UTC)

---

In monarchies the criminal offence may be regarded as an offence against the king or the "king's peace" or the like rather than "society as a whole." This should be mentioned. --Daniel C. Boyer