Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/03/11
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]At 03:41 PM 3/10/2001 -0500, Dan Post wrote: >Here in North Carolina, the criminal statutes are codified so that to >qualify as an offence, certain 'elements' of the crime must exist. > Dan It is the exact opposite in yours and all other Common Law jurisdictions. There are "common law" crimes which require no statues to remain crimes -- murder, manslaughter, rape, arson, mayhem, assault, treason, larceny, robbery, trespass, and other crimes exist independent of statutes. The requirement for "elements" to be proven goes back a LONG way, at least to the early 1200's, as a counter-balance to the vagueries of defending oneself from one of these "common law" crimes. Things are a bit different in Civil Law jurisdictions, as these rely, ultimately, on the Roman commentators and on the Theodosian, Justinian, Gothic, Canon Law, and Napoleonic Codes. (In graduate school, I was doing some research for Ramsey MacMullen on the Theodosian Code -- and noticed that the volume I was using had belonged previously to Michael Roztessefsky - -- so, I was studying under the outstanding scholar of Late Roman Imperial affairs in the 1970's, using a book once owned by the outstanding scholar of Late Roman Imperial affairs from the World War I era. Fair gave me the shakes, it did!) In the US, the only Civil Law jurisdiction is Louisiana, though shards of it survive in New Mexico. And California is producing its OWN legal code which is intended, at some point, to replace common law, though I doubt that it ever will. In both criminal and civil actions, these common-law charges commenced with a pat recitation of the matter. As late as the 1950's, these were required memorization in most US law schools and, even when I went through in the 1970's, we still had to use them constantly. "Goods Had and Delivered" or "the lifting and taking away of the goods of another with the intent to deprive the owner of the possession of such goods permanently". These "common law counts" are handy, as, in both Federal and State courts, all legal interpretation begins here whenever possible. As a Classicist, I really DO have a deep-seated belief that they really DID do things better in the old days. Hence, I can with great relief report that there are no "common law counts" covering the Environmental Pollution Agency nor the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, though the actions agency such as this could have been brought in earlier ages by "common law counts". Marc msmall@roanoke.infi.net FAX: +540/343-7315 Cha robh bas fir gun ghras fir!