Criminal Jurisprudence Notes | LL.M. Semester 1 | Mumbai University | munotes

Contents

Module I

1. What a Crime Is 1
2. The Characteristics of a Crime 5
3. Crime as a Wrong Against the State 9
4. Crime, Civil Wrong and Tort 12
5. Crime, Sin and Morality 15
6. Are Criminal Laws Harmful to Society 18
7. What Criminal Law Is: Substantive and Procedural 21
8. The Sources of Indian Criminal Law, and the Sanhita That Replaced the Code 24
9. Kinds of Crime 28
10. What Criminal Justice Is 31
11. What the Administration of Criminal Justice Means 34
12. Why the State Punishes and Not the Victim 37
13. From Private Vengeance to State Justice 40
14. The Growth of Criminal Justice in India 43
15. The Steps of a Criminal Case 47
16. The Four Agencies 51
17. The Adversarial System and the Inquisitorial System 54
18. The Malimath Committee 57
19. The Victim, and Compensation as the Vanishing Point 61
20. Juvenile Delinquency 66
21. Criminology, Penology and Criminal Jurisprudence 70
22. Actus Non Facit Reum Nisi Mens Sit Rea 73
23. Actus Reus 78
24. Mens Rea 82
25. Intention 86
26. Knowledge 90
27. Rashness and Recklessness 93
28. Criminal Negligence 96
29. Motive and Intention 100
30. There Can Be No Criminality Without Intention 103
31. How the Sanhita Says Mens Rea 107
32. Transferred Malice 111
33. Mens Rea in Statutory Offences 114
34. The Exceptions to Mens Rea 120
35. Ignorance of Law Is No Excuse 124
36. Mistake of Fact and Mistake of Law 128
37. Res Ipsa Loquitur 133
38. The Four Stages of a Crime 138
39. Stage One: Intention 142
40. Stage Two: Preparation 145
41. Stage Three: What an Attempt Is 149
42. The Tests for an Attempt 153
43. Kinds of Attempt 157
44. Impossible Attempts 161
45. Attempt Under the Sanhita 165
46. Stage Four: Commission 168
47. Inchoate Crimes 171

Module II

1. What Group Liability Is 174
2. Common Intention 178
3. The Postmaster Case 183
4. Unlawful Assembly and Common Object 187
5. Common Intention Against Common Object 192
6. The Other Joint Act Provisions 196
7. Abetment 200
8. The Punishment of an Abettor 206
9. Criminal Conspiracy 211
10. Rioting and Affray 216
11. Vicarious Liability in Criminal Law 220
12. Corporate Criminal Liability 224
13. Guilt by Association, and Its Limits 228
14. What the Fundamental Principles Are 232
15. The Presumption of Innocence 236
16. The Burden of Proof and Proof Beyond Reasonable Doubt 241
17. Nullum Crimen Sine Lege 245
18. Double Jeopardy 248
19. The Privilege Against Self-Incrimination 252
20. The Right to a Fair Trial 255
21. Legality, and the Vice of Vagueness 259
22. The Principles in an Adversarial System 262
23. Act and Guilty Mind as the First Principle 265
24. What the General Exceptions Are 268
25. Who Must Prove an Exception 272
26. Bound by Law 276
27. Justified by Law 280
28. Judicial Acts and Acts Under a Court's Order 284
29. Accident 287
30. Necessity, and Jus Necessitatis 291
31. Infancy 296
32. Doli Incapax 301
33. Unsoundness of Mind, and the M'Naghten Rules 305
34. Legal Insanity Is Not Medical Insanity 310
35. Intoxication 314
36. Consent 319
37. Good Faith for Another's Benefit 325
38. Communication Made in Good Faith 329
39. Compulsion by Threat 332
40. Trifles: De Minimis Non Curat Lex 336
41. The Right of Private Defence 339
42. Private Defence of the Body 344
43. Private Defence of Property 348
44. When the Right Extends to Causing Death 352
45. The Limits on the Right 357
46. No Right Against a Public Servant 362
47. When the Right Begins and When It Ends 366
48. Defence Against a Child or a Person of Unsound Mind 370
49. Harm to an Innocent Person 374
50. Raising and Proving the Plea 378
51. Private Defence, Necessity and Provocation 383

Module III

1. What Punishment Is 388
2. The Deterrent Theory 392
3. The Retributive Theory 396
4. The Preventive Theory 400
5. The Reformative Theory 404
6. The Expiatory and Compensatory Theories 408
7. Which Theory Indian Law Follows 412
8. The Kinds of Punishment 416
9. The Death Penalty 419
10. The Rarest of the Rare Test 424
11. Capital Punishment and Human Rights 429
12. Imprisonment for Life, and Imprisonment 434
13. Community Service 438
14. Fine and Forfeiture 442
15. How a Court Sentences 446
16. Probation, Admonition and Release 451
17. Compensation as a Sentence 456
18. The Rights of the Accused 461
19. No Ex Post Facto Punishment 466
20. No Double Punishment 470
21. No Self-Incrimination 474
22. Life and Personal Liberty 479
23. Arrest and Detention 483
24. The Grounds of Arrest 489
25. Counsel and Legal Aid 494
26. The Right to Silence 499
27. The Right to a Speedy Trial 504
28. Torture and Custodial Violence 509
29. Bail 515
30. Appeal and Revision 521
31. The Rights of the Victim 526
32. What Strict Liability Is 531
33. The Public Welfare Offence 535
34. Absolute Liability 539
35. Strict Liability and Vicarious Liability 543
36. Strict Liability in Indian Statutes 548
37. Reading Mens Rea Back In 553
38. The Case For and Against Strict Liability 557

Module IV

1. What the International Criminal Court Is 562
2. From Nuremberg to Rome 566
3. The Rome Statute 570
4. The Organs of the Court 576
5. The Assembly of States Parties 582
6. The Jurisdiction of the Court 587
7. Genocide 592
8. Crimes Against Humanity 596
9. War Crimes 601
10. The Crime of Aggression 606
11. Complementarity 612
12. How a Case Reaches the Court 618
13. The General Principles of Criminal Law in the Statute 624
14. Trial, Appeal and Penalties 631
15. India and the Court 637
16. What the Court Has Done, and the Criticism of It 643
17. What Decriminalisation Means 648
18. Decriminalisation, Legalisation and Reading Down 652
19. The Harm Principle 656
20. Wolfenden, Devlin and Hart 660
21. The Limits of the Criminal Sanction 665
22. Constitutional Review as a Route 670
23. Section 377, and the Road to Navtej 675
24. Adultery 680
25. Triple Talaq, and Criminalisation the Other Way 685
26. Attempted Suicide 689
27. What the Sanhita Dropped 694
28. Decriminalising Regulatory and Economic Offences 699
29. Overcriminalisation 703
30. The Boundary Moves Both Ways 708