Meaning of Criminal Law (What it is, Concept and Definition)

What is Criminal Law:

He criminal law is the branch of public Law that establishes and regulates, through a set of legal norms and principles, the repression of crime by the State. As such, the criminal law is also a legal discipline which is responsible for studying the criminal phenomenon, the crime, the offender and the punishment, from which its legal principles and norms will be deduced.

The objective of criminal law It is the punishment of crimes, through the application of penalties, to protect society from criminals, either by isolating them or by imposing corrective penalties.

On the other hand, they cannot be considered as sources of criminal law neither custom, nor jurisprudence, nor general principles of law, but only the law.

In Mexicohe criminal law has been governed since 1931 by the Penal Code for the District and federal territories in matters of common jurisdiction, and for the entire Republic in matters of federal jurisdiction.which was promulgated by President Pascual Ortiz Rubio and consists of 404 articles.

Objective criminal law

He objective criminal law either ius poenale It is one that is constituted by the set of criminal norms and principles that determine crimes, as well as penalties and their application.

Subjective criminal law

He subjective criminal law either jus puniendi refers to the legitimacy of the State as an entity to sanction and punish crimes and crimes, as well as to establish and impose criminal norms, all of which, however, must be supported by the objective criminal law.

International criminal law

He international criminal law It is the one that defines and regulates international crimes, such as genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and crimes of aggression. Its main body is the International Criminal Court, based in The Hague, created in 1998.

criminal law of the enemy

He criminal law of the enemy It includes a series of principles and rules applied to individuals whose behavior or background make them potential threats to the rest of the citizens and to the legal system of the State.

As such, it is a recent concept, developed in 1985 by the German jurist Günther Jakobswhich differentiates the common citizen, who has committed a crime, from that offender which, due to antecedents and impossibility of amendment, has come to be considered a enemy of the legal system and, therefore, has lost the right to the category of person.

The treatment that an individual receives in the criminal law of the enemy is, of course, much more rigorous than in ordinary criminal law. In this sense, the purpose of the criminal law of the enemy is to provide security to society, since, by anticipating potential punishable acts, it protects its citizens from future dangers.

See also General principles of law

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