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Criminal code

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Document that compiles a particular jurisdiction's criminal law

This article is about law enforcement procedures. For the 1931 film, seeThe Criminal Code. For the Italian criminal code of honor, seeOmertà.

"Penal code" redirects here. For the 1932 film, seeThe Penal Code.

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Acriminal code orpenal code is a document that compiles all, or a significant amount of, a particular jurisdiction'scriminal law. Typically a criminal code will containoffences that are recognised in the jurisdiction, penalties that might be imposed for these offences, and some general provisions (such as definitions and prohibitions onretroactive prosecution).^[1]

Criminal codes are relatively common incivil law jurisdictions, which tend to build legal systems around codes and principles which are relatively abstract and apply them on a case-by-case basis. Conversely they are not as common incommon law jurisdictions. Where a jurisdiction is afederation, thesubnational units of such jurisdiction may or may not use separate penal codes. For example, inIndia, the entire country (thefederal government, states, and union territories) all operate under one criminal code, theBharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, and in Canada the process is roughly the same, with the entire country being subject to a singlecriminal code. However, inAustralia, the federal government and the states operate under different criminal codes (for instance,New South Wales would not necessarily use the federal criminal code, but rather,its own criminal code.)

The proposed introduction of a criminal code inEngland and Wales was a significant project of theLaw Commission from 1968 to 2008. Due to the strong tradition oflegal precedent in thejurisdiction and consequently the large number ofbinding legal judgements and ambiguous 'common law offences', as well as the often inconsistent nature of English law,^{[citation needed]} the creation of a satisfactory code became very difficult. The project was officially abandoned in 2008 although as of 2009 it has been revived.^[2]

A statutory Criminal Law Codification Advisory Committee forIrish criminal law met from 2007 to 2010 and itsDraft Criminal Code and Commentary was published in 2011.^[3]^[4]

In the United States, aModel Penal Code exists which is not itself law but which provides the basis for the criminal law of many states. Individual states often choose to make use of criminal codes which are often based, to a varying extent, on the model code.^[5]Title 18 of the United States Code is the criminal code for federal crimes.^[6] However, Title 18 does not contain many of the general provisions concerning criminal law that are found in the criminal codes of many so-called "civil law" countries.

Criminal codes are generally supported for their introduction of consistency to legal systems and for making the criminal law more accessible to laypeople.^[7] A code may help avoid achilling effect wherelegislation andcase law appears to be either inaccessible or beyond comprehension to non-lawyers. Alternatively critics have argued that codes are too rigid and that they fail to provide enough flexibility for the law to be effective.^{[citation needed]}

Jurisdictions of many countries, such asAlgeria,Argentina,Australia,Austria,Brazil,Canada,Chile,China,Denmark,Egypt,Finland,France,Germany,India,Iran,Israel,Italy,Japan,South Korea,Mexico, theNetherlands,Norway,Pakistan,Poland,Russia,Saudi Arabia,South Africa,Spain,Switzerland,Thailand,Turkey,Ukraine, theUnited Kingdom and theUnited States, use different penal codes.^{[citation needed]}