Criminal

Law
Mohammed Al-Mulhim
 What is the law?

Law is defined as the discipline and characteristic concerned with

the practices, rules and behavior of a society. The law is binding on
society, and is implemented and guaranteed by a controlling
authority. Law in language is the measure and method of
everything. The origin of the word is a Greek source, and some
suggest that it is Persian. The plural is laws, and law is a term. It is a
whole that applies to all its parts, the provisions of which are known
from it. It is also known as the system of rules and regulations that
a particular state or society recognizes as regulating the actions of
its members, and is keen to implement by adopting a system of
punishments for anyone who violates it.
Criminal law: It is a set of legal rules that
define crimes and impose special
punishment or measures for each crime
separately. Criminal law is divided into two
types of rules: The general rules, called the
general section, are concerned with the
general rules and theories of crime, and
the specific legal rules, called the special
section, which are concerned with the
study of crime.
 Development of criminal
law
Scholars have divided the development of criminal law into several
stages based on the era through which societies went through.
These stages are the stage of individual revenge: This stage
included mobile tribes, which considered any attack on one of their
members an attack on the entire tribe, so the members of the
victim’s tribe were They gather to invade the perpetrator's tribe,
which is responsible in solidarity with the perpetrator, so a war
breaks out between the two tribes, with the aim of revenge. This
revenge is to satisfy the victim's family or in order to reach a
solution to reconcile the two quarreling parties on terms that they
agree upon. Within the tribe, responsibilities were distributed to the
head of the tribe
He who exercises his authority over his tribe has the authority to
discipline members of his tribe, from simple beatings to killing or
expulsion. After society developed, the system of retaliation and the
blood money system appeared, and the application of these
systems became compulsory after the emergence of states, in
addition to the emergence of a group of other systems. Such as the
system of banishing the perpetrator, the system of abandoning the
perpetrator to the victim’s family, and the system of prohibiting
killing at certain times. The stage of state revenge: This stage
began with the emergence of the state, which became the authority
that issues punishment and exercises it on behalf of individuals.
This right was limited to crimes that affect the security of the state,
but it included all crimes later, and at this stage the punishment
was based on The basis of atonement. Punishment was imposed in
order to please the gods by taking revenge on them
After that, punishment became imposed on criminals to avenge the
group, as punishments were implemented with a high degree of
firmness and strictness without introducing the idea of ​reforming
the criminal. It is worth noting that the ruling between people was
not based on the basis of justice, but rather in view of their social
positions in the state. The stage of humanity: It is also called the
philosophical stage, and its basis is changing the system of
punishment from a retaliatory system to a more tolerant and
humane system. This stage began in the eighteenth century with
the emergence of some reformers, including: Montesquieu (in
English: Montesquieu), who wrote the book The Spirit of Laws, and
criticized it. The prevailing penal system. Rousseau, author of the
book The Social Contract, called for reducing punishments to a
minimum to protect society from the criminal and prevent him from
harming others. Cesare Beccaria, author of the book Crimes and
Punishments
He believed that the basis of the penal code is to protect
the interest of the group in surviving and preserving its
existence, and therefore it is necessary for it to have the
right to punish in order to defend its interests, by
specifying the goal of punishment in preventing the
criminal from returning to his criminal life and
preventing people from imitating him. The modern
stage: After the increase in the spread of crime in the
middle of the nineteenth century, a new theory
appeared in Italy, called the Realist School. The basis of
this theory was the concern for the offender in the first
place, and then material actions come in the second
place. This theory denied the principle of freedom of
choice, and took By the principle of coercion
As the reason behind the perpetrator committing his
crime is the presence of internal factors related to the
psychological aspect of the criminal, and external
factors related to his living conditions and environment.
This theory has shown that a person’s criminal
seriousness can be predicted before he commits the
crime, and accordingly preventive measures can be
taken to avoid its occurrence. The proponents of this
theory have called for the necessity of studying the
psychological and social causes that may lead the
criminal to carry out his crime, and treating these
causes before they occur.
 The importance of criminal
law
Criminal law derives its importance from the purpose for which it was
established, and its importance can be summarized as follows:
Protecting collective and individual interests:
If the matter were left without a law protecting the individual’s interest,
unrest would prevail among the people and their interests would be lost.
Providing safety and reassurance for community members:
Individuals carry out their actions without fear of being held accountable
for a non-criminal act. This is because the Penal Code collects acts that are
considered crimes and sets penalties for them in advance. This would make
individuals feel reassured and not afraid of any injustice occurring to them,
and even if it occurs, they are responsible. Knowing that the perpetrator
will not escape punishment.
Spreading justice among people:
People are equal before the law, and it is applied to
them without any considerations, because the law has
defined criminal acts in advance. So that an individual
cannot be punished unless he commits any of these
acts, and if he commits them, he will be punished like
other people who committed crimes before him. The
fight against crime:
The importance of criminal law is to combat crime and
try to prevent crimes before they occur through
precautionary and preventive measures.
 Sources of criminal law

The sources of criminal law differ from one country to

another, and cannot be limited to one reference. For
example, Islamic criminal legislation considers the
Qur’an and the Sunnah to be the basis of its rulings, but
in return it depends on the jurisprudence of jurists, their
consensus, and analogy. Accordingly, criminal law
derives its rules from several sources that can be
divided into: Direct and indirect sources, which can be
summarized as follows:
Penal laws related to criminalization and
punishment:
Only the legislative authority has the right to issue it,
and it may be issued in the form of abstract general
rules, and it is considered the primary source of the
penal law. The legislator determines the actions that are
punished, and the penalties that fall on their
perpetrators, and accordingly, no one is punished for his
actions unless they are stipulated In law, this is known
as the principle “There is no crime and no punishment
except by a text.”
Penal administrative systems:
Although the original is that criminal laws are
issued by the legislative authority represented
by Parliament, the powers of the regulatory
authority can be given to the head of state, or to
administrative authorities such as ministries,
central or public departments. It is allowed to
issue binding decisions or decrees, and violating
them is considered a punishable crime.
Custom:
It is the opinion of the public about a specific
issue, but criminal legislation depends primarily
on written legislation, so custom is considered
one of the indirect sources of criminal laws.
There were many provisions in the Penal Code
that took into account society’s customs and
customs in a way that is appropriate for society
itself.
Thank you