Substantive criminal law is composed of the following elements: the definitions of the types of offenses that are held to be punishable; the classification of crimes (as, for example, felonies and misdemeanours in the United States, or crime, délit, and contravention in continental law); the principles and doctrines applied to the judgment of crime that qualify the provisions of criminal legislation (such as self-defense, necessity, insanity, and so forth); and principles determining national jurisdiction over crimes with an international aspect (crimes committed by foreigners, by nationals abroad, or on ships and aircraft outside the national territory and waters).
The definition of criminal conduct
Legality
The principle of legality is recognized in almost all legal systems throughout the world as the keystone of the criminal law. It is employed in four senses. The first is that there can be no crime without a rule of law; thus, immoral or antisocial conduct not forbidden and punished by law is not criminal. The law may be customary, as in some common-law countries; in most countries, however, the only source of criminal law is a statute (nullum crimen sine lege, “no crime without a law”).
Second, the principle of legality directs that criminal statutes be interpreted strictly and that they not be applied by analogical extension. If a criminal statute is ambiguous in its meaning or application, it is often given a narrow interpretation favourable to the accused. This does not mean that the law must be interpreted literally if to do so would defeat the clear purpose of the statute. The Model Penal Code incorporates a provision that was enacted in some U.S. state laws. The code recommends that its provisions be construed “according to the fair import of their terms,” which comes closer to the European practice.
Third, the principle of legality forbids the application of the law retroactively. In order that a person may be convicted, a law must have been in effect at the time the act was committed. This aspect of the principle is embodied in the ex post facto provisions of the U.S. Constitution and such international treaties as the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (adopted 1950) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (entered into force 1976). It is also embodied in the Rome Statute creating the International Criminal Court (ICC; ratified 2002).
Fourth, the language of criminal statutes must be as clear and unambiguous as possible in order to provide fair warning to the potential lawbreaker. In some countries statutes may even be considered inapplicable if they are vague.
Protection against double jeopardy
Legal systems generally include some restriction against prosecuting a person more than once for the same offense. In Anglo-American law the most difficult problems of double jeopardy involve the question of whether the second prosecution is for the “same” or a “different” offense. It is held that acquittal or conviction of an offense prohibits subsequent prosecution of a lesser offense that was included in the first. According to the U.S. Supreme Court in Blockburger v. United States, 284 U.S. 299, 304 (1932), the test to be applied to determine whether there are two offenses or only one is whether each provision requires proof of a fact that the other does not. In continental European law, on the other hand, the question is whether the second prosecution concerns the same “material fact” or “historical event,” and the state cannot subject a person to a second trial for any offense arising out of the same factual situation.
A problem under the federal system of the United States is whether an offender may be prosecuted under both state and federal law for the same conduct (the specific offenses being different). A number of state laws have prohibited state prosecutions after acquittals or convictions in a federal court or in the court of another state for offenses involving the same conduct. However, the U.S. Supreme Court has held that such multiple prosecutions by separate sovereigns are not prohibited by the double jeopardy clause of the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Statutes of limitation
All systems of law have statutes restricting the time within which legal proceedings may be brought. The periods prescribed may vary according to the seriousness of the offense. In German law, for example, the periods range from 3 years for minor offenses to 30 years for crimes involving a life sentence. General statutes limiting the times within which prosecutions for crimes must be begun are common in continental Europe and the United States. In England there is no general statute of limitations applicable to criminal actions, although statutes for specific crimes frequently have included time limits.
In many countries there are no statutes of limitations for particularly heinous offenses, including capital felonies in the United States and genocide and murder in Germany. In 1968 the UN General Assembly adopted a Convention on the Non-applicability of Statutory Limitations to War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity. Similarly, there is no statute of limitations for prosecutions of the offenses of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes under the Rome Statute creating the ICC.
Requirements of jurisdiction
The jurisdiction of a court refers to its capacity to take valid legal action. All governments claim territorial jurisdiction over crimes committed wholly or partly within their territory, including flag vessels (i.e., vessels registered in that country) and embassies. The Tokyo Convention on Offences and Certain Other Acts Committed on Board Aircraft (1963) and the Hague Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Seizure of Aircraft (1970) recognize that states have the right and even the duty of jurisdiction with respect to any crime committed upon aircraft registered in that state. Most nation-states also claim nationality jurisdiction over certain crimes committed by their nationals, even when they were committed in other countries. A third jurisdictional basis is known as protective-principal jurisdiction, which gives criminal jurisdiction over offenses committed against national interests. For example, persons who forge currency of a country may commit a crime against that country even if the forgeries are executed beyond the borders by persons who are not citizens. A fourth jurisdictional basis of late 20th-century origin and with less universal acceptance is similar to the third and is known as passive-personality jurisdiction. In certain circumstances, violent crimes against nationals may give rise to jurisdiction even if the crimes occur beyond the borders and the offenders are not nationals. For example, when in 1985 the United States attempted to arrest the hijackers on the Italian cruise ship MS Achille Lauro because of the brutal shipboard murder of American citizen Leon Klinghoffer, the claimed jurisdiction of the U.S. over the hijackers may have been based on passive personality. Finally, international law recognizes that there are universal jurisdiction crimes that may be tried by any country, regardless of where the crimes occurred or the nationality of the offenders or the victims. A long-accepted example of universal crimes giving jurisdiction to all national courts is piracy on the high seas; all countries have jurisdiction to try pirates. In the 20th century, war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, and torture were added to the list of crimes giving rise to universal jurisdiction.
Most legal systems do not exercise the full range of jurisdiction they might claim. In U.S. law, for example, Congress has passed statutes permitting prosecutions under all of the jurisdictional bases listed above. However, the jurisdiction of the federal courts is generally limited to acts occurring in whole or in part within the boundaries of the United States unless extraterritorial jurisdiction is expressly granted or implied by the statute creating the crime. The U.S. Supreme Court held in U.S. v. Bowman (1922) that most crimes enacted by Congress are to be read as covering only acts committed in the United States. However, this is not true of “criminal statutes which are, as a class, not logically dependent on their locality for the government’s jurisdiction.” U.S. states, while they may have some justifications for asserting extraterritorial jurisdiction, almost exclusively limit criminal jurisdiction to the territorial basis. However, the crime need not be completed within the state. Where, for example, an offender fires a bullet across a state border, striking a victim in a second state, who dies in a third, each of the three states may have territorial jurisdiction to try the offender.
Nationals who commit crimes in foreign countries may be extradited but only if required or authorized by treaty with the country concerned. The constitutions and laws of some countries prohibit their nationals from being extradited to other countries. For example, motion-picture director Roman Polanski fled to France in 1978 to avoid being imprisoned for child sexual assault in California. Because he held dual French and Polish citizenship, he avoided extradition.