Suchergebnisse

The purpose of the article is to discuss the general principles for a policy aimed at protecting fundamental human rights and satisfying human needs. Such a policy would place penal law in a subsidiary position in relation to constitutional principles (constitutional penal law) and guarantees (a minimal penal law). In order to place this project within the legal and sociological conceptual fields of the criminal justice and penal systems, the author critiques ideas relating to the social contract, community safety, criminal policy, penal effectiveness and integration of the fields of knowledge relevant to penology.

A court : what for ? The international court and the crimes against humanity.
Created in November 1 994, the International Court in Rwanda (Tribunal pénal international pour le Rwanda, TPIRJ has not yet judged any criminal charged for genocide. This paper will examine three essential themes necessary to understand the main difficulties encountered by the Court. First, is the organization and working of the Court adapted to judge those responsible for the genocide ? Second, is the criminal policy of the Court consistent with its defined goals and how efficient are its investigative methods ? Third, is the International community really involved in the punishment of criminals and does it effectively counter the laws which provide impunity ?

Arrest and detention of drug users, whose use was not associated with any other offence, remains relatively important in Belgium. After a brief presentation of Belgian penal options and criminal policy on drugs, the article presents some research findings from a study on how drug users enter the penal system. Part of the research involved looking at whether simple users constituted a target for the two communal police forces of the region of Brussels and considering the determinating factors for intervention : personal and operational factors, but, more importantly, technical and strategic factors.

The Penal Code is not just a book that lists legal penalties; it is also a code of liberty. Indeed, no charge can be brought without the existence of a legal text anterior to the offence. In other words, what is not forbidden is allowed. The right to punish is not unlimited. It can only repress the breach of liberty and therefore assumes that the latter existed at the time the offence was carried out by the person sued. The recent laws undermine these principles, taint penal law and lead to its destruction. Adapted from the source document.

The decision by 12 out of the 36 states of the Nigerian federation to reinstate the sharia criminal code brought an end to the steady erosion of its area of jurisdiction since the colonial conquest. The built-in reforms of judiciary systems were massively endorsed in the predominantly Muslim Northern states where this was interpreted as a concrete response to the spread of violence, corruption and insecurity. The patterns of administration of islamic criminal code are reviving past debates on its political instrumentalization, and the social impact of a rigid approach to punishments which is also particularly discriminatory towards women. The reinstatement of the sharia criminal code is but one of the manifestations of an overall revival of neo-traditionalist strategies in Nigeria, correlated with a regression of federal claims to territorial control. The consociational arrangements established in the late 1960s to curb secessionist pressure have become dysfunctional and Nigeria looks increasingly like a country without a state. Adapted from the source document.

The individualization of punishment, which dates back to the second half of the 19th century, wrought a sea change in the administration of penal sanctions. Ever since, policymakers & lawgivers have been confronted with an ongoing debate over the legitimacy of the right to punish, which in turn determines how criminals & victims are perceived in crime-fighting policies. The analysis in the foregoing article of the interaction between public opinion highly receptive to crime statistics that foster widespread insecurity & politics, the guarantor of social order, sheds some light on the main lines of political debates & choices regarding the types of sanctions to be applied. The point is to show how politics informs our evolving notions of the guilt & responsibility of dangerous individuals, but also how politics is responsible to society. Adapted from the source document.

Since the 1980s, victimization has developed in many areas and, in most democratic countries, the rights of victims have been considerably extended. Given its very particular penal system, which grants victims real power in starting and conducting a trial, France has become the country whose penal system is most affected by this general trend. Adapted from the source document.

What should we usually expect from penal justice other than it should impose penalties on the authors of proven offences ? Rules have profoundly changed since the middle of the twentieth century. First, the conditions of limitations of public action have become more restrictive and crimes against humanity have been declared imprescriptible. Second, in the wake of the ordinance of 2 February 1945 regarding underage offenders, magistrates may, in certain circumstances, reject criminalization for adults even though the offences they are accused of are proven. Finally, political authorities, being committed to oblivion, forgiveness and reconciliation, have extensively resorted to amnesty and pardon. Adapted from the source document.

EU cooperation in police & penal law matters is updated in light of new threats posed by social, political, & economic events of the 1990s. Pertinent provisions of the EU's Maastricht, Amsterdam, & Nice treaties are outlined; the European Council's Tampere, Brussels, & Laeken programs are described. Recent developments in European police & criminal policies are surveyed. An overview of deepening police cooperation emphasizes the role of Europol. Current criminal/security challenges are detailed. Weaknesses in the treaties are evaluated. Remedies proposed by the European Convention are summarized. E. Taylor