Fundamentals of Criminal Law and Procedure: Key Terms and Questions

This assignment provides a comprehensive overview of fundamental concepts in criminal law and procedure. It begins by defining 55 key terms, including "actus reus," "mens rea," "Bill of Rights," and "English common law," providing concise and clear explanations for each. The assignment then delves into the application of these terms through a series of short answer questions, exploring the relationship between morality and criminal conduct, the overlap between civil and criminal law, and the influence of English common law on American criminal law. Furthermore, it examines the distinctions between procedural and substantive law, and the different purposes of punishment in the criminal justice system, including the effectiveness of capital punishment. The assignment concludes by referencing relevant sources, enhancing its credibility and providing additional resources for further study. This resource from Desklib provides students with a solid foundation in criminal law principles.

Running head: QUESTIONS 0
CRIMINAL LAW

QUESTIONS 1
Explanation of key terms:
1. Actus reus – It is described as the action an individual takes to execute the criminal act.
2. Appellate courts – It is considered as court of law that is authorized to hear an appeal of
lower court or trial court.
3. Arraignment – the arraignment is known as formal reading of criminal charging
document in front of offender to update the offender of the charge in against of offender.
4. Bill of Rights - The Bill of Rights contains first 10 amendments to Constitution of United
states of America.
5. Bills of attainder – it is considered as act of the legislature declaring people or group of
people guilty of certain offences as well as punishing them, often without hearing.
6. Blackstone's Commentaries - it is law of England that make impact on treatise on
English law.
7. Breaches of contract – it is considered as civil wrong, where binding agreement is not
fulfilled by one or more parties.
8. civil disobedience – it is active refusal of citizens to follows law, requirement, order of
the government
9. Constitutional supremacy – it is government system where laws-making independence
of parliamentary supremacy concedes to requirement of Constitution.
10. Criminal trial – it is negotiation procedure of the criminal legislation.
11. Death penalty – it is capital punishment where individual puts to death.

QUESTIONS 2
12. Decisional law – it is legislation developed by legal decision in matters as distinguished
from laws made by legislature.
13. Due process of law – it is judicial need that the state should respect judicial rights that
are owed to an individual.
14. English common law – it is body of law established in England mainly from legal
decision based on customs along with model.
15. Equal protection of the laws – the phrase in 14th Amendment to USA Constitution
wanting that state guarantees similar privileges, rights as well as protections to the
citizens.
16. Error correction function – it is a method, which includes toting parity facts bits to
messages.
17. Ex post facto laws – it is a law that retroactively make changes in judicial consequences
of action before enactment of legislation.
18. Fair hearing – legal proceeding made in a way as to conform to basic concept of justice
as well as equality.
19. Fair notice – it is legal notice whose scope and objective can be determined by an
individual having reasonable competence.
20. Federalism – it is category of government where powers are divided between
governmental unit and central government.
21. Felonies – it is offence considered in USA and legal system as severe than misdemeanor.

QUESTIONS 3
22. Grand jury – it is group of citizens authorized by legislation to make legal proceeding
and examine prospective behavior of criminals.
23. Incarceration – it is one of the key forms of sentence along with rehabilitation for the
prisoners.
24. Indictment - it is considered as formal charge or allegation of the severe offence.
25. Information – It is known as a formal criminal charge that starts criminal proceedings in
a court.
26. Judicial review – it is process in which actions of executives are subject to be reviewed.
27. Lawmaking function – it is considered as procedure of making law.
28. Mala in se – it is the Latin phrase meaning immoral or wicked in itself.
29. Mala prohibita – it is the expression applied to actions that are criminalized severely by
statutory legislation as well as statute.
30. Mens rea - It contains two main factors of mens rea. These are intent as well as
knowledge.
31. misdemeanors – It is "lesser" criminal act in certain common law systems.
32. Model Penal Code (MPC) – it is most significant developments in the American law. It
has great impact on American criminal system.
33. Monetary fines – it is money that court orders to be paid as punishment for the offences
and crimes.
34. Ordinances – It is considered as authoritative order.

QUESTIONS 4
35. Plea bargaining – it is an agreement between prosecuting attorney and defendant
whereby the offender approves plead guilty.
36. Police power – it is ability of states to administer conduct and make order in the territory
for the improvement of the health as well as ethics.
37. Presumption of innocence – it states that the criminal defendants have no obligation for
proving the innocence (Cryer, 2019).
38. Pretrial diversion – it is substitution of prosecution that looks for diverting certain
criminals from traditional criminal justice system in the program of administration as
well as services regulated by USA Probation Service (Perlin, 2016).
39. Probation - Probation is considered as period of administration over the criminal
provided by court in place of staying in prison.
40. Procedural criminal law – it is branch of substantive law managing punishment for
criminal in against of public.
41. Reasonable doubt standard – it takes place while the fact finder may not say with
ethical certainty that the people are guilty.
42. Restitution – it is known as recompense for injuries and losses (Kirchengast, 2016).
43. Rule of law – it is a principle of government by legislation.
44. Rules of evidence – it contains the judicial principles as well as rules that administer
proof of fact in the judicial proceedings.
45. Rules of procedure – these are considered as rules of order.

QUESTIONS 5
46. Separation of powers – it is considered as model for the domination of the state.
47. Stare decisis – it is judicial principle that obliges court to consider historical matters
while creating ruling on the similar matters.
48. statutes – the statue is considered as written law enacted by legislative body
49. Strict liability offenses – it is considered as liability for which mens rea is not required
to be proved about one or more factors containing the actus reus.
50. Substantive criminal law – it is set of legislations that regulates how society’s members
are to behave.
51. Torts – torts are wrongful acts or the violation of rights (except in contract) leading to
judicial liabilities (Robinson, 2017).
52. treason – it is known as action of betraying somebody or somewhat
53. Treatment programs – these programs are made to give treatment to people having
health problems.
54. trial courts – It is a court that has original jurisdiction where trial takes place
55. Victim – victim is a person who find himself helpless in relation to ill treatment (Garrett,
2017).

QUESTIONS 6
Short answers:
1. In court of law, the morality does not clearly come in front. However, since all people
have been raised with certain kind of ethical codes imbued in them, it invariably
subconsciously enters in deliberation made by panel.
2. The civil law as well as Criminal law overlap. The main reason is that they state several
problems that take place from similar events.
3. The English common law has important role in contemporary American criminal law
because it makes the case law (Goldberg, Sebok & Zipursky, 2016).
4. Procedural laws renders a procedure that the case would go through. The filing of charge
is best example. On the other hand, the substantive law regulates how guiltlessness is
required to be decided. The murder is best example of substantive law.
5. There are four types of murder such as rehabilitation, retribution, deterrence, as well as
societal protection. The capital punishment is not available for people convicted of first-
degree murder. In my opinion, incapacitation is most effective punishment to control
crime.
6. The Supreme Court was not right to prohibit the execution of juvenile criminals. It is
essential to consider heinousness of crime (Vasile, 2019).

QUESTIONS 7
References
Cryer, R. (Ed.). (2019). International Criminal Law Documents. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Garrett, B. (2017). End of its rope: How killing the death penalty can revive criminal justice.
USA: Harvard University Press.
Goldberg, J. C., Sebok, A. J., & Zipursky, B. C. (2016). Tort Law: Responsibilities and Redress.
USA: Aspen Publishers.
Kirchengast, T. (2016). Victims and the criminal trial. New York: Springer.
Perlin, M. L. (2016). A prescription for dignity: Rethinking criminal justice and mental disability
law. New York: Routledge.
Robinson, P. (2017). The Structure and Limits of Criminal Law. New York: Routledge.
Vasile, Z. (2019). The institution of prosecution in criminal trial. Criminology. 25(8), pp. 15-48