Criminal Law.
Branch or division of law which defines crimes, treats of their nature, and
provides for their punishment.
Crime. An act committed or omitted in violation
of a public law forbidding or commanding it.
Sources:
- RPC Act No. 3815 & its amendments;
- Special penal laws passed by the Phil Commission, Phil Assembly, Phil Legislature, Nat'l Assembly, Phil Congress, Batasang Pambansa
- Penal Presidential Decrees during Martial Law.
No common
law crimes in the Philippines.
Common law
- body of principles, usages and rules of action, which do not rest for their
authority upon any express and positive declaration of the will of the
legislature
State. Has the authority under its police power
to define and punish crimes and to lay down the rules of criminal procedure.
Court decisions are not sources of criminal
law, they merely explain the meaning of and apply the law as enacted by the
legislature.
Limitations on the power of the lawmaking body to enact penal
legislation.
- Ex-post facto law - one which makes criminal an act done before the passage of the law; aggravates a crime when committed; changes the punishment and inflicts a greater punishment than the law annexed to the crime when committed
- Bill of attainder - automatic conviction without passing through a trial
- Criminal laws must be of general application and must clearly define the acts and omissions punished as crimes.
Characteristics
of Criminal Law.
- General - criminal law is binding on all persons who live or sojourn in the Philippine territory.
Exception.
- Treaty stipulations;
- Law of preferential application;
- Principle of international law - diplomatic representatives ie., sovereigns and chiefs of state, ambassadors, minister plenipotentiary, ministers resident, charges d'affaires- possess immunity from the criminal jurisdiction of the country and cannot be sued, arrested or punished.
- Territorial - criminal laws undertake to punish crimes committed within the Philippine territory.
Article 2. The provisions of
this code shall be enforced not only within the Philippine Archipelago,
including its atmosphere, interior waters and maritime zone, but also outside
of its jurisdiction, against those who:
- Should commit while on the Philippine ship or airship;
- Should forge or counterfeit any coin or currency note of the Philippine Islands or obligations and securities issued by the Government of the Philippine Islands.
- Should be liable for any acts connected with the introduction into these islands of the obligations and securities mentioned in the preceding number;
- While being public officers or employees, should commit an offense in the exercise of their duties;
- Should commit any of the crimes against national security and the law of nations, defined in the Title One of Book Two of this Code.
- Prospective - penal law cannot make an act punishable in a manner in which it was not punishable when committed.
Exception: when a new statute
dealing with crime establishes conditions more
lenient or favorable to the accuse, it can be given a retroactive
effect.
Exception to the exception
- Where the new law is expressly made inapplicable to existing causes of action.
- Offender is a habitual criminal
Theories of Criminal Law.
- Classical theory - basis of criminal liability is human free will and purpose of the penalty is retribution.
- Positivist theory - man is subdued occasionally by a strange and morbid phenomenon which constrains him to do wrong, in spite of or contrary to his volition.
Repealed laws.
- When the repeal is absolute, the offense ceases to be criminal.
- When new law and old law penalize the same offense, the offender can be tried under the old law.
- When the repealing law fails to penalize the offense under the old law, the accused cannot be convicted under new law.
- A person erroneously accused and convicted under a repealed statute may be punished under the repealing statute.
- A new law which omits anything contained in the old law dealing on the same object, operates as a repeal of anything not so included in the amendatory act.
How are penal laws construed?
- Penal laws are strictly construed against the Government and liberally in favor of the accused.
- Spanish text prevails over the English text, in construing or interpreting provisions of the RPC.
