Criminal Law Lecture Notes Test stays open for a week Week 1 A crime - a legal wrong that can be followed by criminal proceedings which may result in punishment. - Normally the combination of two factors e.g. was it in public or private - Second element is that of moral wrongdoing, for conduct to warrant classification as criminal, must involve moral wrong doing - Of course not every transaction that can be considered morally wrong or injurious to the public interest is treated by our law as crime. Moving parliament - things that once were a crime are now not vice versa (domestic violence) Legal positivism - Crime is, then, conduct which is recognised by the law as being criminal. Conduct is criminal law when treated as criminal by the machinery under the authority of the state. - For what is criminal at any given time does depend simply upon what is treated as being criminal by the state acting through machinery of justice. 'offence' act or omission which renders the person liable to punishment Reconstructing Criminal Law - Crime an punishment serve to protect individual and collective human rights and liberties o No crime and punishment unless rights/liberties are violated Homicide - protects the right to life. Assault - protects a person physical integrity. Sexual offences - protect sexual integrity freedom of choice. Property offences - protect right to own and control property Drug offences - protection of public health See Human rights act - Purpose - Protected rights. - Operation - statement of how the act complies with human rights.
Week 2 Criminal law done by the states - state criminal law - Disparity between the criminal law of the nation due to diversity of laws within different states - Some use Code Jurisdictions - Qld, WA, Tas, NT, ACT - Some use Common law Jurisdictions - NSW, SA Vic Federal Criminal Law - Criminal Code (cth) - Crimes Act 1914 (cth), specific statutes Power to make immigration laws can also make immigration offences International Criminal Law - Bilateral; multilateral - Implemented through domestic statutes, i.e. drug offences where treaties are signed to criminalise substances Queensland Prior to 1899 crim law in qld was governed by common law 1897-1899 Griffith CJ (QLD) drafts a criminal code for Qld from - Stephens code (UK) - Criminal law of new York state - Penal code of 1899 (Italy) 1899 Qld parliament enacts the ccriminal code act 1899 qld. Which abrogates the common law and introduces the criminal code (qld) 1995 attempt to reform Qld criminal law and introduced a new criminal code - repealed in 1997
Criminal Code Qld Nature of the code - Endeavoured to Include all the rules of the unwritten common law relevant to criminal responsibility and administration of justice. Structure of the code - General principles; part 1 introductory, part 7 extensions of criminal liability - Specific offences parts 2-6 - Criminal procedure part 8 Offences outside the code - Common law offence of 'contempt