(4) Mayhem and injuring the Person.. (7) Offences against Women and Children CRIMINAL LAW. INTRODUCTION. § 1. Place of Criminal Law in Jurisprudence. rights. THE immediate object of law in the abstract is the Division of (1) Between subject and subject; or, Division of Hence arises a threefold division of law (b) into— (2) Public law, dealing with the rights subsisting (3) International law, dealing with the rights Private law is either (c) (1) Substantive, defining the rights of indi- (2) Adjective, indicating the procedure by which Private law. H. B Moreover, substantive private law deals with rights (b) Abnormal, according as the persons with whom they are con- Whether normal or abnormal, rights are also— (B) Remedial, as springing up when an antecedent Antecedent rights are either in rem, i. e., available against the whole world, or in personam, i. e., available only against a definite individual. Remedial rights are almost all available only in personam. This division of private law may be more shortly expressed as follows: Public law. Private law Substantive, defining rights normal which are antecedent { in rem. in personam. abnormal remedial-in personam. Adjective, providing for the protection of rights. It would be possible to apply the above divisions of private to public law also; but as such a classification would entail considerable inconvenience in our view of the criminal law, we prefer to adopt the arrangement of public law (d) under the heads ofI. Constitutional Law; II. Administrative Law; IV. Criminal Procedure; and V. The Law and Procedure relating to the state in its quasi-private personality. (d) Holland's Jurisprudence, pp. 245–247. Hence, criminal law and criminal procedure, the subjects of our present inquiry, are two subdivisions of public law (e). § 2. Nature of a Crime. a crime. In accordance with the preceding division of law, Definition of a crime may be defined as the violation of a right subsisting between the state and a subject (ƒ), and affecting the whole community, considered as a community. between A tort, on the other hand, is a violation of the Distinction private or civil rights (other than those arising under crimes and a contract) subsisting between individuals, considered as individuals. This distinction between crimes and torts may at first sight appear a fine one; for the same set of circumstances will from one point of view constitute a tort, while from another point of view they amount to a crime. In the case, for instance, of an assault, the right violated is that which every man has, that his bodily safety shall be respected, and for the wrong done to this right the injured party is entitled to claim. damages; from this point of view, therefore, this violation is a tort. But this is not all. The act of (e) For a further discussion of the nature of law, and rights, the student is referred to Prof. Holland's Jurisprudence, and Austin's writings on that subject. As in the present treatise we are dealing merely with criminal law and procedure, it is beyond its scope to further discuss the three other subdivisions of public law. (f) In 4 Steph. Comm. p. 4, a crime is defined as the violation of a right, when considered in reference to the evil tendency of such violation, as regards the community at large. torts. |