Principled Enforcement of Penal Codes

Abstract

* Associate Professor, University of Utah College of Law. This article is dedicated to my teacher and friend, Bob Weisberg, who introduced me to the charms and warts of the Model Penal Code. 1. Herbert Wechsler, The Challenge of a Model Penal Code, 65 Harv. L. Rev. 1097, 1102 (1952). 2. Frank J. Remington, The Future of the Substantive Criminal Law Codification Movement—Theoretical and Practical Concerns, 19 Rutgers L.J. 867, 893 (1988). 3. Louis B. Schwartz, Morals Offenses and the Model Penal Code, 63 Colum. L. Rev. 669, 671 (1963). 4. This is not the first such claim, nor will it be the last. See Wayne R. LaFave & Austin W. Scott, Jr., Criminal Law 3 (2d ed. 1986) (“In the realm of substantive criminal law, by far the most significant development has been the completion of the American Law Institute’s Model Penal Code . . . .”); Sanford H. Kadish, The Model Penal Code’s Historical Antecedents, 19 Rutgers L.J. 521, 538