Encyclopaedia of Constitutional Law and Criminal Justice System Politics and Policies (Introduction To Criminal Justice System)

Constitutional and administrative law govern the affairs of the state. Constitutional law concerns both the relationships between the executive, legislature and judiciary and the human rights or civil liberties of individuals against the state. Most jurisdictions, like the United States and France, have a single codified constitution with a bill of rights. A few, like the United Kingdom, have no such document. A "constitution" is simply those laws which constitute the body politic, from statute, case law and convention. Criminal law, also known as penal law, pertains to crimes and punishment. it thus regulates the definition of and penalties for offences found to have a sufficiently deleterious social impact but, in itself, makes no moral judgment on an offender nor imposes restrictions on society that physically prevents people from committing a crime in the first place. investigating, apprehending, charging, and trying suspected offenders is regulated by the law of criminal procedure. The paradigm case of a crime lies in the proof, beyond reasonable doubt, that a person is guilty of two things. First, the accused must commit an act which is deemed by society to be criminal, or actuaries (guilty act).1 Second, the accused must have the requisite malicious intent to do a criminal act, or mens rea (guilty mind). However for so called" strict liability" crimes, an actus reus is enough. Criminal systems of the civil law tradition distinguish between intention in the broad sense, and negligence. Negligence does not carry criminal responsibility unless a particular crime provides for its punishment. The volumes examine all the complex constitutional issues involved in criminal law. lt provides substantive discussion, as well as procedural guidelines on tactics and strategy.