Clasification Problems of Criminal Acts in regard to the Term of Enforcement of riminal Law
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Abstract
The article deals with a problem of temporal validity of criminal laws. The author analyzes the main issues on that point in new Penal Code of Lithuania (2000). The author investigates the principles of temporal validity of criminal laws in Lithuania. He starts with the principle of the time of committing the criminal behavior and investigates it. According to article 3 part 1 of Penal Code the time of committing the crime is considered the time of committing criminal behavior, not the time of occurring consequences of that behavior. It means that the court should apply the law that was in action at that time. The author investigates the problems that occurred in practice then identifying the time of committing crime.
Further the author investigates the problems emerging in a process of identification the law that was valid at that time. It is not a simple problem due to the fact that dozens of provisions of the Penal Code of Lithuania were frequently amended.
Further the author investigates the principle of „retroactive validity of the law, that mitigates punishment or abolishes criminality of committed behavior, or otherwise mitigates position of the offender“. The author investigates the difficulties emerging then identifying the essence of the new law, whether it abolish criminality of the offence or just concern punishment. The author pays much attention to the problem whether new law mitigates or aggravates punishment for committed offense. The author submits examples of practice of Supreme Court of Lithuania then applying the provisions of the article 3 of the Penal Code of Lithuania 2000, submits extracts from the Supreme Court judgements.
The author pays particular attention towards the cases then the new law partially mitigates, partially aggravates position of the offender. The author gives examples how the Supreme Court has dealt with the similar problems in particular cases and gives suggestions.
The author analyses the problem of applying so called „intermediate“ law – the law that was not valid neither during the time of committing the crime, nor during the time of passing the sentence, however the law was adopted and was in action particular time after committing the crime. The author relies on the practice of Supreme Court of Lithuania, submits examples of decisions and suggests that „intermediate“ law should be applied if it has mitigated position of the offender.
As the last point the author investigates the problem how deep the new law should be applied. There is no problem that the new law should be applied if offender case still is in pretrial investigation or in court. How to deal with a problem if the case is already decided and offender is executing the sentence. The author gives comments on that point, explains the provisions of the article 3621 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, that was adopted by Parliament in 2003 and enabled the offender that serve the sentence submit application to the court and calls for application of the new law.
Further the author investigates the problems emerging in a process of identification the law that was valid at that time. It is not a simple problem due to the fact that dozens of provisions of the Penal Code of Lithuania were frequently amended.
Further the author investigates the principle of „retroactive validity of the law, that mitigates punishment or abolishes criminality of committed behavior, or otherwise mitigates position of the offender“. The author investigates the difficulties emerging then identifying the essence of the new law, whether it abolish criminality of the offence or just concern punishment. The author pays much attention to the problem whether new law mitigates or aggravates punishment for committed offense. The author submits examples of practice of Supreme Court of Lithuania then applying the provisions of the article 3 of the Penal Code of Lithuania 2000, submits extracts from the Supreme Court judgements.
The author pays particular attention towards the cases then the new law partially mitigates, partially aggravates position of the offender. The author gives examples how the Supreme Court has dealt with the similar problems in particular cases and gives suggestions.
The author analyses the problem of applying so called „intermediate“ law – the law that was not valid neither during the time of committing the crime, nor during the time of passing the sentence, however the law was adopted and was in action particular time after committing the crime. The author relies on the practice of Supreme Court of Lithuania, submits examples of decisions and suggests that „intermediate“ law should be applied if it has mitigated position of the offender.
As the last point the author investigates the problem how deep the new law should be applied. There is no problem that the new law should be applied if offender case still is in pretrial investigation or in court. How to deal with a problem if the case is already decided and offender is executing the sentence. The author gives comments on that point, explains the provisions of the article 3621 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, that was adopted by Parliament in 2003 and enabled the offender that serve the sentence submit application to the court and calls for application of the new law.
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Authors retain copyright of their work, with first publication rights granted to the Association for Learning Technology.
Please see Copyright and Licence Agreement for further details.
