Criminal Law - Definition of Terms - Assignment Example

Case law has a history dating to the codes of prehistoric Rome.
Criminal law
Criminal law denotes laws that define the level of punishment advanced to members of society who commit felonious offenses. The fundamental concept of criminal law is mens rea.
Common law

Common law has fundamental roots from judicial and customs precedents and not statutes. It forms part of English law that mostly contrasts with statutory law. Common law relates to English law modified and adopted differently by federal governments (Casenotes and Briefs 77).
More
More describe the conventions and identifiable customs of the community. More related to habits, ways of life, or traditions embraced by the community. More defines the moral attitudes acceptable in an individual society.
Norms
Norms define the standard or typical things within a society. Norms relate to expectations of conventional social behaviors within a given community defined by moral rules.
Mala in se

The Latin phrase malum in se is itself evil. It is conduct implicated or assessed by law as sinful and warrants regulations by the governing conduct laws.
Mala prohibita
Latin phrase relates to conduct that constitutes an illegitimate deed specifically by the statute. It is the antonym of malum in se.
Stare decisis
Stare a decision that relates to the doctrines of precedent in the creation of the legal principle of determining points in a lawsuit. It defines the principles of law on which the court used to rest an erstwhile decision.

Statutory law
Statute law, as opposed to customary or oral law, refers to written laws by legislators and legislatures. Legislators write statute laws in monarchy states. Legislative rules prescribe, declare, or command-specific requirements.
Substantive Criminal law
Substantive Criminal law relates to written rulings that explain the duties and rights in criminal and civil law. States can enact substantive criminal law by initiative processes (Cole, Smith, and DeJong 75).

Procedural law
Refers to the framework of chronological procedures that oversee the administration of fairness in cases whereby the law convicts a suspect of a committed crime.
Elements of crime
It includes component items that are used to qualify and make a case as a crime. It involves a breach of the constitution. They include an act involving physical action and criminal intent. Winning criminal trials involves proving that an element of necessity is absent.
Specific Intent
These Crimes require the prosecution to prove the defendant’s special state of mind to commit the illegal acts physically.

Men's rea
Men's rea is an individual’s mental intent to commit a crime, which institutes the part of evil. It is the component of the crime that the usable by the prosecution to convict the accused.
Actus Rea
Actus Rea refers to the physical breach of the law, the act of physically being involved in a crime.
Concurrence
Is a situation whereby the defense and the prosecution agree with one another on the issue within the judiciary?

Scienter
Sciester is a law-bound term that indicates the degree of awareness that makes an individual lawfully responsible for the significance of his or her acts.
Strict liability crime
Strict liability crime is a transgression not requiring a mental intent. Men's rea implicates Strict liability crime within criminal law systems.
Attendant circumstances
They are additional elements other than actus reus, men's rea, and the result that outline a crime.

Bill of Attainder:
Bill of Attainder is a statutory act punishing an individual or a group of easily recognizable individuals. In most instances, the decision on treason is executed without trial. The American Constitution prohibits this.
‘’But for’’rule
‘’But for the rule is an adjoining cause is an event satisfactorily related to a lawfully recognizable injury. ‘Best for’ rule adjoining causes includes proximate and cause-in-fact clauses.

Corpus Delecti

Corpus Delecti relates to circumstances and facts that constitute a breach of the law. A corpse, for instance, is a Corpus Delecti as it is evidence of the crime (Gardner and Anderson 101).
Ex Post Facto
Ex Post Facto represents a retrospective dynamism or effect. Ex post facto law defines subsequent actions. Read More