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Using inline citations helps guard against copyright violations and factual inaccuracies. | The Principle of Legality is a legal ideal that requires all law to be clear, ascertainable and non-retrospective. It requires decision makers to resolve disputes by applying legal rules that have been declared beforehand, and not to alter the legal situation retrospectively by discretionary departures from established law. It is closely related to legal formalism and the rule of law and can be traced from the writings of Feuerbach, Dicey and Montesquieu. Image File history File links Emblem-important. ...
Legal formalism is a Positivist view in jurisprudence and the philosophy of law. ...
The rule of law is the principle that governmental authority is legitimately exercised only in accordance with written, publicly disclosed laws adopted and enforced in accordance with established procedure. ...
Paul Johann Anselm Ritter von Feuerbach (November 14, 1775 - May 29, 1833), German legal scholar, originator of the famous maxim nullum crimen, nulla poena sine praevia lege poenali: No crime committed, and no punishment meted out, without a violation of penal law as it existed at the time. ...
Albert Venn Dicey (February 4, 1835 – April 7, 1922) was a British jurist and constitutional theorist who wrote An Introduction to the Study of the Law of the Constitution (1885). ...
Montesquieu can refer to: Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu Several communes of France: Montesquieu, in the Hérault département Montesquieu, in the Lot-et-Garonne département Montesquieu, in the Tarn-et-Garonne département This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages...
The principle has particular relevance in criminal and administrative law. In criminal law it can be seen in the general prohibition on the imposition of criminal sanctions for acts or omissions that were not criminal at the time of their commission or omission. The principle is also thought to be violated when the sanctions for a particular crime are increased with retrospective effect.
In administrative law it can be seen in the desire for state officials to be bound by and apply the law rather than acting upon whim. As such advocates of the principle are normally against discretionary powers.
The principle can be varyingly expressed in Latin phrases such as Nullum crimen, nulla poena sine praevia lege poenali (No crime can be committed, nor punishment imposed without a pre-existing penal law), nulla poena sine lege (no penalty without law) and nullum crimen sine lege (no crime without law).
International Law Legality, in its criminal aspect, a principle of international human rights law, and is incorporated into the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights. However the imposition of penalties for offences illegal under international law or criminal according to "the general principles of law recognised by civilised nations" are normally excluded from its ambit. As such the trial and punishment for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity does not breach international law. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (abbreviated UDHR) is an advisory declaration adopted by the United Nations General Assembly (A/RES/217, 10 December 1948 at Palais de Chaillot, Paris). ...
Parties to the ICCPR: members in green, non-members in grey The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights is a United Nations treaty based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, created in 1966 and entered into force on 23 March 1976. ...
“ECHR†redirects here. ...
This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ...
For other uses, see Genocide (disambiguation). ...
In the context of war, a war crime is a punishable offense under International Law, for violations of the laws of war by any person or persons, military or civilian. ...
This article is in need of attention. ...
There is some debate about whether this is really a true exception or not. Some people would argue that it is a derogation or - perhaps somewhat more harshly - an infringement of the principle of legality. While others would argue that crimes such as genocide are contrary to natural law and as such are always illegal and always have been. Thus imposing punishment for them is always legitimate. The exception and the natural law justification for it can be seen as an attempt to justify the Nuremberg trials and the trial of Adolf Eichmann, both of which were criticised for applying retrospective criminal sanctions. Natural law or the law of nature (Latin: lex naturalis) is an ethical theory that posits the existence of a law whose content is set by nature and that therefore has validity everywhere. ...
For the 1947 Soviet film about the trials, see Nuremberg Trials (film). ...
Otto Adolf Eichmann (known as Adolf Eichmann; March 19, 1906 – June 1, 1962) was a high-ranking Nazi and SS Obersturmbannführer (equivalent to Lieutenant Colonel). ...
Constitutional Law The principle of legality can be affected in differing ways by different constitutional models. In Britain under the doctrine of Parliamentary sovereignty, the legislature can (in theory) pass such retrospective laws as it sees fit, though article 7 of the international convention on human rights, which has legal force in Britain, forbids conviction for a crime which was not illegal at the time it was committed. Article 7 has already had an effect in a number of cases in the British courts. Parliamentary sovereignty, parliamentary supremacy, or legislative supremacy is a concept in constitutional law that applies to some parliamentary democracies. ...
In contrast many written constitutions prohibit the creation of retrospective (normally criminal) laws. However the possibility of statutes being struck down creates its own problems. It is clearly more difficult to ascertain what is a valid statute when any number of statutes may have constitutional question marks hanging over them. When a statute is declared unconstitutional, the actions of public authorities and private individuals which were legal under the invalidated statute, are retrospectively tainted with illegality. Such a result could not occur under parliamentary sovereignty (or at least not before Factortame) as a statute was law and its validity could not be questioned in any court. The Factortame case was a landmark constitutional case in the United Kingdom (UK), which confirmed the primacy of European Union law over English law. ...
Bibliography - Kelsen, Hans. General Theory of Law and State (Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, c1945) (Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 1949) (New York : Russell & Russell, 1961) (New Brunswick, New Jersey : Transaction Publishers, c2006).
- Kelsen, Hans. Principles of international law (New York : Rinehart, 1952) (New York : Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1966) (Clark, New Jersey : Lawbook Exchange, 2003).
- Slaughter, Anne-Marie. A new world order (Princeton : Princeton University Press, c2004).
- Nye, Joseph S. Soft power (New York : Public Affairs, c2004).
- de Sousa Santos, Boaventura and César A. Rodríguez-Garavito, eds. Law and globalization from below : towards a cosmopolitan legality (Cambridge, UK : Cambridge University Press, 2005)
- Marsh, James L. Unjust legality : a critique of Habermas's philosophy of law (Lanham : Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, c2001).
- Sarat, Austin, et al, eds. The limits of law (Stanford : Stanford University Press, 2005).
- Milano, Enrico. Unlawful territorial situations in international law : reconciling effectiveness, legality and legitimacy (Leiden ; Boston : M. Nijhoff, c2006).
- Ackerman, Bruce, ed. Bush v. Gore : the question of legitimacy (New Haven : Yale University Press, c2002).
See also Nullum crimen, nulla poena sine praevia lege poenali is a basic maxim in continental European legal thinking, authored by Paul Johann Anselm Ritter von Feuerbach as part of the Bavarian Code in 1813. ...
Socialist Legality is an idea that forms the basis for a legal system, much like the common law and civil law (or Napoleonic Code). ...
External links - Legality in actual operation in International Law, examples:
- Legality in actual operation in national Constitutional Law, examples:
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