The American legal system has evolved from the English.
Former possessions of England, the first 13 American colonies, directly borrowed from the principles of common law. So, gradually, as the expansion of the United States, their scope extended to new states, and those who have previously belonged to other states.
Sources of US criminal law are some of the features:
Characterized by the complexity of the legal system
Confusion and archaic legal norms
The presence of the 53 criminal legal systems, which are divided into 50 state systems, one federal system, one system odnu- District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.
The American system was formed in the conditions of federalism.
The federal legal system exists along with federal law, federal law enforcement agencies and the federal legislature.
Federal system operates with a few exceptions throughout the country, and the state system - the territory of the respective state. Such construction of the US legal system as a whole is called dualism of law.
Federal criminal law provisions contained in the 1787 Constitution of the United States., In the Acts of Congress and some regulations.
The US Constitution
It contains provisions to the criminal law:
The ban on the use of unusual and cruel punishment
The ban on the collection of unusually high fines
Prohibition to make laws retroactive
Prohibition of deprivation of property without due process of law
We give the concept of "high treason" as a crime
Many penal provisions are in Part 2 of section 18 (eg, such as a fine, imprisonment, the death penalty).
In 1984 the law was published a comprehensive "control crime", which contained the basic provisions, organize sentencing. And in 1994 g.- law "on combating social crime" has increased the number of cases of the death penalty to sixty.
In addition to the standards of the federal statutory law sources of criminal law are the US and the regulations issued by the President, the federal government departments and agencies. In them, in particular, explains and details the specific criminal laws set conditions for their application.
The sources of criminal law states include: US Constitution, US Constitution, state criminal laws, regulations issued by the authorities.
All 50 states have their own, legally appointed, constitution, among which the oldest is the Constitution of the State of New Hampshire 1784. and most novoy- Colorado Constitution of 1965 ..
Constitution states characterized by high volume and less stable. Many of the provisions have been borrowed from the federal Constitution.
Among the norms regulating the issues related to the introduction and pimeneniem of criminal penalties, there are many directly contradictory. For example, the Florida Constitution prohibits indefinite punishment, and the Constitution of Michigan and Maryland, on the contrary, give legislatures that right.
In general, on some issues the state constitution gives a broader definition. They can be found to bring the rules on the procedure of execution, exemption from payment of the fine and the replacement of one other penalties, on parole, the definition of the offenses of bribery and lynching, unlawful gambling activity, as well as criminal the legal consequences of their commission.
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