Definition of Criminal Law

The right Criminal is a branch of law whose purpose is the legal regulation of punishable actions, that is, of crimes. Whoever deals with this sphere of law has to know criminality, as well as the related legal norms.

While the criminology deals with the agents that generate criminal behavior, criminal law addresses the rules that criminalize the crime.

Roman criminal law

The historical precedent of this legislative area is Roman criminal law, which introduced a series of fundamental precepts: the suplicium or execution of the guilty, the damnum or the criminalization of the crime, the legal guarantees for the defendant and the classic distinction between intentional and negligent crime, among many other principles normative.

The different criminal codes classify crimes according to the legal right that is breached (for example, bigamy as a punishable action goes against the family or the homicide attempts against the right to life).

Figure of the offender and violation of the rules

Criminal law focuses on criminal actions, the figure of the offender and the penalization of non-compliance with the law. law. In any case, the crime is the fundamental concept and by it is understood the illicit action that is objectively described in a law and that is accompanied by a sanction correspondent.

The institution that is entitled to apply the penalties in criminal law is the state, which must act with the intention to protect individuals and the community so that there is social harmony and that injustice. The rules established in the different codes explicitly establish which behaviors are prohibited and the corresponding sanction in the event of non-compliance.

Principle of legality and conflict of interest

From the idea that the law is the fundamental source of this branch of law, so that it is consider criminal law as something just and legitimate, it is necessary to respect the principle of legality. This principle is based on three precepts: there is no crime without a written law (lex scripta), a law must be strictly applicable to a crime (lex stricta) and the crime is non-existent without a prior law (lex previous).

Finally, it must be borne in mind that in any criminal proceeding a conflict interests: the interest of the state to prosecute the crime and penalize it and, in parallel, individual of the accused person in which their legal guarantees are respected and, especially, the presumption of innocence.