A Modern Treatise on the Principle of Legality in Criminal Law

Thepresentbookisbasedonthelecturesdeliveredbytheauthorinthepastfew yearsaspartoftheCriminalLawcourseoftheFacultyofLawattheOnoAcademic College. There has been little research on the principle of legality in modern criminallaw,althoughthisisoneofthemostancientlegalprinciplesofhuman society. In recent generations there have been several attempts to de?ne the principleconclusively,butonlywithregardtosomeofitsaspects. Nocompreh- sivede?nitionoftheprincipleoflegalityhasbeenattemptedtodate. Aconclusivede?nitionoftheprincipleoflegalityincriminallawrequiresboth anaccurateinward-lookingde?nitionoftheprincipleitself,andanoutward-lo- ingtreatmentofitsrelationwithcriminallawtheory. Onlyacoherenttheorythat includestheprincipleoflegalityasanintegralpartofcriminallawtheorycando justicetotheprincipleoflegality. Thisviewisconsistentwiththescienti?cconcept oflaw,whichregardsthelawaspartofscience. AModernTreatiseonthePrincipleofLegalityinCriminalLawisthereforea scienti?ctreatiseononeofthefourprinciplesofthecriminallaw. Thepresent treatiseisdividedintosixparts,accordingtothescienti?cunderstandingofthe principleoflegalityincriminallaw. Chapter1explorestherelationbetweenthe principleoflegalityandthegeneraltheoryofcriminallawinthecontextofthe structureandthedevelopmentoftheprincipleoflegalityinhumansociety. This chapter outlines the four secondary principles of the principle of legality, and describesthemingeneralterms. Chapters 2–5 discuss in detail each of the four secondary principles of the principleoflegality. Chapter 2discussesthelegitimatesourcesofthecriminal norm,Chap. 3discussestheapplicabilityofthecriminalnormintime,Chap. 4 discussestheapplicabilityofthecriminalnorminplaceandChap. 5discussesthe interpretationofthecriminalnorm. Eachofthefourchaptersconcludeswitha discussionofthecon?ictoflawsissuesrelevanttothesecondaryprincipleunder investigation. Finally,Chap. 6addressestheproblemofthecon?ictoflawswithin thecon?ictsoflawsandroundsoutthediscussion. ix x Preface IwishtothankOnoAcademicCollegeforsupportingthisproject,andespecially DeanofthefacultyoflawandvicechairmanDudiSchwartzforhisstaunchsupport onsomanyimportantoccasions. IthankGabrielLanyiforhiscommentsandAnke SeyfriedofSpringerHeidelbergforguidingthepublicationofthebookfromits inceptiontoitsconclusion. Finally,Iwishtothankmywifeanddaughtersforthe helpfuldiscussionsandsupporttheyofferedalongtheway. KiryatOno,June2010 GabrielHallevy Contents 1 TheMeaningandStructureofthePrincipleofLegality inCriminalLaw . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1. 1 TheRoleofthePrincipleofLegalityintheCriminal LawTheory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1. 1. 1 TheBasicStructureofCriminalLawTheory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1. 1. 2 TheBasicStructureofthePrincipleofLegality inCriminalLaw . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 1. 2 DevelopmentofthePrincipleofLegalityinCriminalLaw andItsModernJusti?cations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 2 TheLegitimateSourcesoftheCriminalNorm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 2. 1 TheStructureoftheCriminalNormandItsIdenti?cation . . . . . . . . . . 16 2. 1. 1 ValidConditionalClauses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 2. 1. 2 CriminalSanction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 2. 1. 3 Classi?cationofOffencesBasedonContent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 2. 2 TheLegalSourcesoftheCriminalNorm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 2. 2. 1 GeneralPrinciples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 2. 2. 2 LegalSources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 2. 3 Con?ictofLawsBasedonLegitimateSources oftheCriminalNorm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 3 ApplicabilityoftheCriminalNorminTime . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 3. 1 BasicDistinctions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 3. 1. 1 DistinctionBetweenProceduralandSubstantive CriminalNorms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 3. 1. 2 DistinctionBetweenRelevantPointsinTime . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 3. 1. 3 DistinctionBetweenContinuous,Temporary, andFragmentedCriminalNorms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 3. 1. 4 DistinctionBetweenMitigatingandAggravating CriminalNorms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 xi xii Contents 3. 2 ApplicabilityoftheProceduralCriminalNorminTime . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 3. 2. 1 TheGeneralRule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 3. 2. 2 ApplicationoftheRule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 3. 3 ApplicabilityinTimeoftheSubstantiveCriminalNorm . . . . . . . . . . . 67 3. 3. 1 TheGeneralRule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 3. 3. 2 ApplicationoftheRule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 3. 4 Con?ictofLawsBasedonApplicabilityoftheCriminal NorminTime . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 4 TheApplicabilityoftheCriminalNorminPlace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 4. 1 TheBasicDistinctions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 4. 1. 1 DistinctionBetweenApplicabilityandJurisdiction inCriminalLaw . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .