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18 views24 pages

Chapter 3 PowerPoint

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echoes.stones-05
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Chapter 3

Types of Law
Substantive Law
• Law of crimes
• Defined by statute
• Prescribes and proscribes
• Enforced by the state
• Differs from procedural law
Civil Law
• Private law
• Transactions between non-governmental
entities
• Resolves disputes
– Property
– Contracts
– Personal injuries
Civil Law
• Certain harms fall into both criminal and
civil categories
• Divided into five major categories
– Torts
– Property
– Contracts
– Family law
– Juvenile law
Types of Law: Criminal & Civil
• Civil law designed to address private wrongs
• Criminal law designed to address violation of
society’s rules
• Many differences
– Proof beyond a reasonable doubt standard
– Preponderance of the evidence standard
Criminal Law
• What is Crime?
– 1) An act in violation of a
– 2) Criminal law for which a
– 3) Punishment is prescribed; the person
committing it must have
– 4) Intended to do so and to have done so
without legally acceptable
– 5) Defense or justification
Criminal Law
• Mala in se
– Crimes that are inherently harmful
– Generate strong emotional responses in all
victims
Criminal Law
• Mala prohibita
– criminalized in a particular place at a
particular time according the social attitudes
surrounding those acts
Criminal Law
• Sources
– State and federal constitutions
– State and federal statutes
• Bulk is contained in state statutes
– Common law
Criminal Law
• Limitations on Criminal Law
– Substantive due process
– Overbreadth doctrine
• Void for vagueness
– Proportionality
– Bar against “cruel and unusual” punishment
– Ex post facto laws
– Bills of attainder
Criminal Law
• Elements of Criminal Liability
– Attaches, in most instances, only when there
exists both a criminal act and the intent to
commit it, which together are the cause of harm
– Five elements
• Must be established beyond a reasonable doubt
• Comprise the corpus delicti
• Actus Reus, Mens Rea, Concurrance, Causation,
and Harm
Criminal Law
• Elements of Criminal Offenses
– Actus Reus (criminal act)
• Law does not punish thoughts alone
– Must be an act
• Voluntary bodily movements
• An omission when there is a legal duty to act
• Possession
Criminal Law
• Elements of Criminal Offenses
– Mens Rea (guilty mind/criminal intent)
• Intent
– The mental purpose or desire to commit a certain act
– Some degree of intent is required for criminal liability to
attach
• Motive
– The cause, or reason why the act was committed
– There is no requirement that the prosecution prove
motive (but usually is attempted to explain to the jury
why the act was committed)
Criminal Law
• Elements of Criminal Offenses
– Mens Rea (criminal intent)
• The Model Penal Code sets forth four levels of
intent
» Purposeful
» Knowing
» Reckless
» Negligent (negligence)
• Common law establishes the doctrine of
transferred intent
Criminal Law
• Elements of Criminal Offenses
– Concurrence
• The union of actus reus and mens rea
Criminal Law
• Elements of Criminal Offenses
– Causation
• The criminal act is the act that is the cause of the
harm
• Two types of causation: factual and legal (both
must exist)
– Factual causation
– Legal causation
» Proximate cause
Criminal Law
• Elements of Criminal Offenses
– Harm
• The result of the act, the injury to another
• Occurs in all crimes, even in so-called “victimless”
crimes
Criminal Law
• Liability Without Fault
– Strict liability
• Imposes accountability without proof of criminal
intent in situations where society deems it fair to do
so
Criminal Law
• Inchoate Crimes
– Anticipatory and incomplete crimes
– Legally they are completed crimes
– Three kinds
• Attempt
• Solicitation
• Conspiracy
Criminal Law
• Parties to a Crime
– Accessories: before, during, or after the
crime
Criminal Law
• Defenses to Criminal Liability
– Alibi
– Affirmative defenses
• Burden of production
• Burden of persuasion
Criminal Law
• Defenses to Criminal Liability
• Justification Defenses
– Self-defense
– Consent
Criminal Law
• Defenses to Criminal Liability
– Excuse Defenses
• Age
Criminal Law
• Defenses to Criminal Liability
– Excuse Defenses
• Insanity
– M’Naghten rule
– Irresistible impulse test
– Durham rule
– Substantial capacity test

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