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Proportionality (law)
Proportionality is a general principle in law which covers several separate (although related) concepts: *The concept of proportionality is used as a criterion of fairness and justice in statutory interpretation processes, especially in constitutional law, as a logical method intended to assist in discerning the correct balance between the restriction imposed by a corrective measure and the severity of the nature of the prohibited act. *Within criminal law, the concept is used to convey the idea that the punishment of an offender should fit the crime. *Under international humanitarian law governing the legal use of force in an armed conflict, ''proportionality'' and '' distinction'' are important factors in assessing military necessity. *Under the United Kingdom's Civil Procedure Rules, costs must be "proportionately and reasonably incurred", or "proportionate and reasonable in amount", if they are to form part of a court ruling on costs. Proportionality as a general principle ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Statutory Interpretation
Statutory interpretation is the process by which courts interpret and apply legislation. Some amount of interpretation is often necessary when a case involves a statute. Sometimes the words of a statute have a plain and a straightforward meaning. But in many cases, there is some ambiguity in the words of the statute that must be resolved by the judge. To find the meanings of statutes, judges use various tools and methods of statutory interpretation, including traditional canons of statutory interpretation, legislative history, and purpose. In common law jurisdictions, the judiciary may apply rules of statutory interpretation both to legislation enacted by the legislature and to delegated legislation such as administrative agency regulations. History Statutory interpretation first became significant in common law systems, of which historically English law#Common law, England is the exemplar. In Roman and civil law, a statute (or code) guides the magistrate, but there is no jud ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
European Convention On Human Rights
The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR; formally the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms) is an international convention to protect human rights and political freedoms in Europe. Drafted in 1950 by the then newly formed Council of Europe,The Council of Europe should not be confused with the Council of the European Union or the European Council. the convention entered into force on 3 September 1953. All Council of Europe member states are party to the Convention and new members are expected to ratify the convention at the earliest opportunity. The Convention established the European Court of Human Rights (generally referred to by the initials ECHR). Any person who feels their rights have been violated under the Convention by a state party can take a case to the Court. Judgments finding violations are binding on the States concerned and they are obliged to execute them. The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe monitors the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
On Crimes And Punishments
''On Crimes and Punishments'' ( it, Dei delitti e delle pene ) is a treatise written by Cesare Beccaria in 1764. The treatise condemned torture and the death penalty and was a founding work in the field of penology. History Beccaria and the two brothers Pietro and Alessandro Verri started an important cultural reformist movement centered around their journal ''Il Caffè'' ("''The Coffee House''"), which ran from the summer of 1764 for about two years, and was inspired by Addison and Steele's literary magazine ''The Spectator'' and other such journals. ''Il Caffè'' represented an entirely new cultural moment in northern Italy. With their Enlightenment rhetoric and their balance between topics of socio-political and literary interest, the anonymous contributors held the interest of the educated classes in Italy, introducing recent thought such as that of Voltaire and Denis Diderot. ''On Crimes and Punishments'' marked the high point of Milan Enlightenment. In it, Beccari ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cesare Beccaria
Cesare Bonesana di Beccaria, Marquis of Gualdrasco and Villareggio (; 15 March 173828 November 1794) was an Italian criminologist, jurist, philosopher, economist and politician, who is widely considered one of the greatest thinkers of the Age of Enlightenment. He is well remembered for his treatise '' On Crimes and Punishments'' (1764), which condemned torture and the death penalty, and was a founding work in the field of penology and the Classical School of criminology. Beccaria is considered the father of modern criminal law and the father of criminal justice. According to John Bessler, Beccaria's works had a profound influence on the Founding Fathers of the United States. Birth and education Beccaria was born in Milan on 15 March 1738 to the Marchese Gian Beccaria Bonesana, an aristocrat of moderate standing from the Austrian Habsburg Empire. Beccaria received his early education in the Jesuit college at Parma. Subsequently, he graduated in law from the University of Pa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Death Penalty
Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that the person is responsible for violating norms that warrant said punishment. The sentence ordering that an offender is to be punished in such a manner is known as a death sentence, and the act of carrying out the sentence is known as an execution. A prisoner who has been sentenced to death and awaits execution is ''condemned'' and is commonly referred to as being "on death row". Crimes that are punishable by death are known as ''capital crimes'', ''capital offences'', or ''capital felonies'', and vary depending on the jurisdiction, but commonly include serious crimes against the person, such as murder, mass murder, aggravated cases of rape (often including child sexual abuse), terrorism, aircraft hijacking, war crimes, crimes against hum ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bloody Code
The "Bloody Code" was a series of laws in England, Wales and Ireland in the 18th and early 19th centuries which mandated the death penalty for a wide range of crimes. It was not referred to as such in its own time, but the name was given later owing to the sharply increased number of people given the death penalty, even for crimes considered minor or misdemeanor by 21st century standards. History In 1689 there were 50 offences on the statute book punishable by death in England and Wales, but that number had almost quadrupled by 1776, and it reached 220 by the end of the century. Most of the new laws introduced during that period were concerned with the defence of property, which some commentators have interpreted as a form of class suppression of the poor by the rich. George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax, expressed a contemporary view when he said that "Men are not hanged for stealing horses, but that horses may not be stolen". Grand larceny was one of the crimes that dr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Guilt (law)
In criminal law, guilt is the state of being responsible for the commission of an offense. Legal guilt is entirely externally defined by the state, or more generally a "court of law". Being "guilty" of a criminal offense means that one has committed a violation of criminal law, or performed all the elements of the offense set out by a criminal statute. The determination that one has committed that violation is made by an external body (a "court of law") after the determination of the facts by a finder of fact or “factfinder” (i.e. a jury) and is, therefore, as definitive as the record-keeping of the body. For instance, in the case of a bench trial a judge acts as both the court of law and the factfinder, whereas in a jury trial the jury is the trier of fact and the judge acts only as the trier of law. Thus, the most basic definition is fundamentally circular: a person is guilty of violating a law if a factfinder in a court of law so says. Philosophically, guilt in criminal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Proportional Justice
Retributive justice is a theory of punishment that when an offender breaks the law, justice requires that they suffer in return, and that the response to a crime is proportional to the offence. As opposed to revenge, retribution—and thus retributive justice—is not personal, is directed only at wrongdoing, has inherent limits, involves no pleasure at the suffering of others (i.e., ''schadenfreude'', sadism), and employs procedural standards. Retributive justice contrasts with other purposes of punishment such as deterrence (prevention of future crimes) and rehabilitation of the offender. The concept is found in most world cultures and in many ancient texts. Classical texts advocating the retributive view include Cicero's ''De Legibus'' (1st century BC), Kant's ''Science of Right'' (1790), and Hegel's ''Philosophy'' ''of Right'' (1821). The presence of retributive justice in ancient Jewish culture is shown by its mention in the law of Moses, which refers to the punishments ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chief Justice Of Australia
The Chief Justice of Australia is the presiding Justice of the High Court of Australia and the highest-ranking judicial officer in the Commonwealth of Australia. The incumbent is Susan Kiefel, who is the first woman to hold the position. Constitutional basis The office of Chief Justice of the High Court is established under section 71 of the Australian Constitution, which establishes the High Court as consisting of a chief justice and at least two other Justices. The court was constituted by, and its first members were appointed under, the Judiciary Act 1903, with the first appointments to the High Court commencing on 5 October 1903. Role The Chief Justice is first among equals among the Justices of the High Court, and the position differs little from that of the other justices. All Justices, including the Chief Justice, are appointed by the governor-general of Australia, on the advice of the federal government. They can be removed only by the governor-general, on a reque ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Owen Dixon
Sir Owen Dixon (28 April 1886 – 7 July 1972) was an Australian judge and diplomat who served as the sixth Chief Justice of Australia. A judge of the High Court for thirty-five years, Dixon was one of the leading jurists in the English-speaking worldGraham Perkin Its Most Eminent Symbol Hidden by The Law (published in The Age on 23 September 1959) and is widely regarded as Australia's greatest-ever jurist. Education Dixon was born in Hawthorn in suburban Melbourne in 1886. His father, JW Dixon, was a barrister and subsequently a solicitor. He attended Hawthorn College and later the University of Melbourne, graduating with an Arts degree in 1907. During this time, he developed his lifelong love of the classics from his classical philology professor, Thomas George Tucker. He was also influenced by professor of law, William Harrison Moore. His B.A. became an M.A., as was the custom then, a year later upon the payment of a small fee. He then studied law at Melbourne Law Sc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Commonwealth Law Reports
The Commonwealth Law Reports (CLR) () are the authorised reports of decisions of the High Court of Australia. The Commonwealth Law Reports are published by the Lawbook Company, a division of Thomson Reuters. James Merralls AM QC was the editor of the Reports from 1969 until his death in 2016. The current editors are Christopher Horan KC and Paul Vout KC. Each reported judgment includes a headnote written by an expert reporter (by convention, a practising barrister) which, as an authorised report, has been approved by the High Court. The current reporters are as follows: * Roshan Chaile * Ella Delany * Bora Kaplan * Rudi Kruse * James McComish * William Newland * Alistair Pound SC * Daniel Reynolds * Alexander Solomon-Bridge * Julia Wang * Michael Wells * Jillian Williams * Radhika Withana The headnotes include a summary of counsel's legal arguments. The Reports also include tables of cases reported, affirmed, reversed, overruled, applied or judicially commented on and cited ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Kirby (judge)
Michael Donald Kirby (born 18 March 1939) is an Australian jurist and academic who is a former Justice of the High Court of Australia, serving from 1996 to 2009. He has remained active in retirement; in May 2013 he was appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council to lead an inquiry into human rights abuses in North Korea, which reported in February 2014. Early life and education Michael Donald Kirby was born on 18 March 1939 at Crown Street Women's Hospital to Donald and Jean Langmore (née Knowles) Kirby. He was the eldest of five siblings, followed by twins Donald William and David Charles (the latter died at 18 months from pneumonia), David, and Diana Margaret. In 1943 his grandmother, Norma Gray, remarried and her second husband was Jack Simpson, National Treasurer of the Australian Communist Party. Although Kirby came to admire Simpson, neither he nor his immediate family embraced the ideology. His father supported the Australian Labor Party, but never became a m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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