Criminal Law – General Theory: Why Motive Rarely Matters
A tour of the ideas that decide when conduct becomes a crime, who is to blame and why we punish at all.
Criminal Law – General Theory · 50 questions
Try 3 questions
1. Who coined the formula 'nullum crimen, nulla poena sine lege' (no crime, no punishment without law)?
- German jurist Anselm von Feuerbach
- Roman jurist Ulpian
- Italian thinker Cesare Beccaria
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Answer: German jurist Anselm von Feuerbach
Feuerbach phrased the Latin formula in the early 1800s; despite the Latin, it is not Roman, and Beccaria defended the idea without coining the maxim.
2. A new law criminalizes an act and is applied to people who did it last year. Which principle does this violate?
- The ban on double jeopardy
- The ban on retroactive criminal laws
- The presumption of innocence
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Answer: The ban on retroactive criminal laws
Legality requires that the crime be defined before the act, so people can know in advance what is forbidden.
3. After you commit an offense, but before sentencing, the law lowers its penalty. In most modern systems, which penalty applies?
- The harsher one in force at the time
- The milder penalty from the new law
- An average of the old and new penalties
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Answer: The milder penalty from the new law
The principle of the more lenient law (lex mitior) lets a milder later law benefit the accused; only harsher laws cannot reach back.
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