Criminal Judgments Research Articles

Contamination of forensic DNA evidence in the light of Hungarian court decisions – A review of 25 years

The evaluation of forensic DNA expert opinions (in some countries expert witness testimonies) and the way it affects criminal judgement is of paramount importance. We have selected one of the largest challenges when it comes to the evaluation of forensic DNA evidence, contamination of DNA samples, and examined how it influences the decisions judges make about the credibility of DNA evidence in Hungary.

The Procedural Prerequisites of Alternative Treatment on Drug Abuse and Summary Trial Procedure: Comments on No.1289 Criminal Judgement (2022) of Supreme Court

The Procedural Prerequisites of Alternative Treatment on Drug Abuse and Summary Trial Procedure: Comments on No.1289 Criminal Judgement (2022) of Supreme Court

Engagement in Chinese criminal judgments

Abstract Based on the engagement system in Appraisal Theory and taking 100 Chinese criminal judgments as data, this paper analyzes the distribution features and interpersonal functions of engagement resources in Chinese criminal judgments. The findings are as follows. First, in Chinese criminal judgments, dialogic contractive resources outnumber dialogic expansive ones. Of the nine types of engagement resources, Deny takes the largest proportion. Entertain, Acknowledge, Pronounce, and Endorse are also favored by judges, while Counter, Endorse+Pronounce, Concede, Endorse+Acknowledge, and Distance are much less favored. Second, the dialogic space is adjusted in different parts of judgments due to different engagement strategies, narrowing down in the Head, Fact, and Reason parts, then nearly closing up in the Result part, and finally opening up in the Ending part. Third, Deny, Pronounce, Endorse+Pronounce, Endorse, and Distance are used to show that criminal judgments are just, authoritative, persuasive, and compulsory. By acknowledging the arguments and submissions that have been presented, judges are showing respect for the litigation rights of the various parties, while the featured strategies of Counter, Concede, and Entertain increase the acceptability of the judgments.

Judicial Dissent at the International Criminal Court: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis

AbstractThis article explores the phenomenon of judicial dissents at the ICC. The main subject is the process of collective decision-making and judicial deliberations in cases where members of a particular ICC chamber cannot reach a consensus on factual, substantive or procedural issues and render a unanimous decision. The article examines why and when international criminal judges dissent according to the views expressed by ICC judges. Drawing heavily on field research in The Hague, the article presents a qualitative analysis of the ICC judges’ perceptions and experiences of using dissenting opinions at the Court. Empirical findings derived from interviewing ICC judges support the hypothesis that international criminal judges’ personality, that is, their character differences (such as self-discipline and other work habits), their previous career experience, and their field of expertise determine their likelihood of using judicial dissents. In case of disagreement within an ICC Chamber, judges with criminal law backgrounds who previously worked as professional judges are more likely to append their dissent to a majority ruling with which they do not agree than international judges, diplomats, and professors with public international law expertise who are more willing to discuss and negotiate in order for the Court to speak with one voice.

IMPLEMENTATION OF PENAL PROVISIONS AGAINST A LEGAL INDIVIDUAL AND THEIR PROBLEMS IN IRAQI LEGISLATION

Legal persons play a large role in societies, especially in recent times, because they have played a positive and pivotal role towards high rates of investment and economic development. However, these legal persons may prove their involvement - in some cases - towards committing many crimes and violating the provisions of the law. Accordingly, the importance of this research comes through dealing with one of the important topics, which is to shed light on the implementation of penal provisions on the legal person and its problems in Iraqi legislation. Our study aims at explaining the approach of the Iraqi legislator towards the proper implementation of the penal provisions on the legal person, especially since the implementation of the judgment revolves around the availability of many legislative provisions, and what many legal texts have settled in the criminal legislation in Iraq, so what is the contribution of those policies and procedures regulating the implementation process Towards achieving its deterrent goals and achieving retributive justice. Despite the clarity of the texts related to the implementation of penal judgments on a legal person, many legal difficulties and problems may arise when implementing a criminal judgment, which would have an impact on obstructing the course of justice, which calls for solutions that remove such obstacles. Our study deals with following the descriptive analytical approach and clarifying the position of the Iraqi legislator towards the issue of implementing penal provisions on the legal person. Our study in this regard is divided into two sections; In the first topic, we deal with the concept of the legal person and the trends of legal jurisprudence towards his penal responsibility.. Then we explain in the second topic the position of the Iraqi legislation regarding the implementation of criminal judgments towards the legal person, as our study addresses two demands. Keywords: Legal Person, Penal Judgment, Iraqi Legislation, Problems, Legal Jurisprudence.

Haste Makes Waste: Why China's New Plea Leniency System is Doomed to Fail

AbstractIn 2016, China introduced an ‘Admission of Guilt and Acceptance of Punishment’ system (known as ‘plea leniency’) premised primarily on the ideal of punishing crime efficiently while advancing the protection of human rights. In this article, I challenge this official rationale by critically examining the legitimacy of plea leniency as a rights-based approach to crime. Drawing on procedural justice theory, I use extant research data and online criminal judgments from the courts in Shanghai to unravel manifold mismatches between the plea leniency process and a procedurally just decision-making process that respects individual rights. My contention is that the operational dynamics of plea leniency is weighed heavily towards efficacy with little regard for the fundamental norms of due process and fairness in which the procedural legitimacy of this new form of summary dispositions is grounded. By tying the expedition of criminal proceedings to guilty pleas, plea leniency represents a discursive continuity of China's broader criminal justice culture, and as such, it fails in operating on a more just, respectful, and communicative basis to accommodate defendants’ interests which stand at the core of its operation.

The Effect of Decisions Civil Court on the Criminal Judgment in the Context of Comporative Law Turkey and Azerbaijan Case

The Effect of Decisions Civil Court on the Criminal Judgment in the Context of Comporative Law Turkey and Azerbaijan Case

Intercultural Justice in France: Origins and Evolution

This paper will highlight the mandate of the juvenile judge in the context of intercultural justice in France, in which juvenile judges are at the same time civil judges and criminal judges. Their role is to both pass judgement on juvenile offenders as well as to protect minors who may be at risk. It may even be the same adolescent who has committed a crime who is also a child at risk. Through the guidance process (children at risk), the judge must respect — as is necessary for all judges — the principles that all must have the opportunity to contradict the charges leveled against them. These decisions are made in the context of a hearing where the parties may be present with or without counsel, where reasoning must be given and will be subject to appeal. We therefore have the obligation to listen to the appeals of both parents and children; some juvenile judges will even accept the presence of other members of the family or other persons whose presence is desired and may help to establish a dialogue.

Key Information Extraction of Food Environmental Safety Criminal Judgment Documents Based on Deep Learning.

Food has an impact on everyone's daily life, the long-term stability of the nation, human survival and development, people's lives and health, and the steady advancement of society. A food safety criminal judgment is a legal document used to record the trial of food-related offences. It primarily contains the case's history, information about the parties involved, and the verdict. In order to identify defendants, their charges in court documents, and other important court information, this paper proposes a method for extracting key information from food safety criminal conviction documents based on deep learning. It builds and analyses a hidden Markov model (HMM) based on the corpus of crime-related components, and uses the model trained by a DL neural network to determine the trend of a given data set. In the test result classification task, the results demonstrate that the Transformer model can achieve macro accuracy rates of roughly 0.963, macro recall rates of 0.932, and macro F1 scores of 0.958. Experiments demonstrate the model suggested in this paper's performance and effectiveness in extracting abstract information from food criminal trial documents.

2021년 일본 소년법 개정에 관하여 : 18·19세 소년(특정소년)의 새로운 처분을 중심으로 -

On March 2021, the bill for partly amending the Juvenile Act was submitted to the National Assembly. It was formed as it is on May 21, 2021 and will be implemented from April 1, 2022. The Juvenile Act and Criminal Act Subcommittee (for Juvenile Age and Offenders Treatment) of the Judiciary Committee has paid attention to the fact that 18 and 19 years old youths have the right to vote as a result of the amendment to the Public Office Election Act and they are treated as adults from 2022 as a result of the amendment to the Civil Act, and considered lowering the age at which the Juvenile Act is applicable. The amendments that have been completed through long discussions define 18 and 19 years old youths as “Specific Juveniles” and treat them different from persons under the age of 18 by making an exception. In other words, although 18 and 19 years youths still cannot be considered full-grown youths, they are beings expected to participate in the society with responsibilities having the right to vote and, therefore, they are defined as intermediate persons between juveniles and adults. The basic framework of the current Juvenile Act un which all cases are forwarded to family courts and probation is determined by conducting investigations and rendering a judgment, remains effective as to specific juveniles. As a result of these amendments, however, as for 18 and 19 years old youths, the scope of the so-called “referral to public prosecutor in principle” extends to the offenses punishable by imprisonment with or without forced labor for a short term of one (1) year. Moreover, the provision defining juveniles likely to commit a crime in the future is not applicable (as an exception for probation). The exception of report prohibition is applicable after indictment. If a suspect is forwarded to the prosecution and then, is subject to criminal judgment, an indefinite term of sentence does not apply and the exception of restrictions on qualifications does not apply as well (which means that they are subject to the same disposition as adults in principle). Those provisions are exceptions different from the provisions for persons under the age of 18. The discussion about specific juveniles are also a discussion about legal bases under juveniles should be defined under the Juvenile Act. Furthermore, the exceptions for specific juveniles open a couple of doors to rehabilitate 18 and 19 years old youths and, in certain cases, to hold them strictly responsible for the offenses they have committed. Taking into serious consideration whether relevant principles and exceptions under the Juvenile Act can possibly coexist, should of great help to establish directions and juvenile policies of the Juvenile Act in the future.

Combating (child) human trafficking: A challenge between repression tools and detection of vulnerability

The aim of this article is to reconceptualise the notion of child trafficking by seeking to understand child vulnerability and agency. The research approach focuses on criminal judgements pronounced in Italian courts and assesses how institutional interpretations support perceptions of vulnerability or agency that are often promoted or defined by criminal law perspectives. The attempt is to investigate human trafficking both as a multifaceted phenomenon and as a process to link together the functioning of elements of the human trafficking system that as a prism assumes different shapes in a growing complexity.

СОВРЕМЕННОЕ ПОНЯТИЕ, СУЩНОСТЬ И ДИНАМИКА РАЗВИТИЯ ИНСТИТУТА СЛЕДСТВЕННЫХ ДЕЙСТВИЙ В УГОЛОВНОМ ПРОЦЕССЕ РЕСПУБЛИКИ УЗБЕКИСТАН

The article deals with the issues of the modern concept, essence and features of the institute of investigative actions. The methodological basis of the study of the essence of the institute of investigative actions in the criminal process, the theory of modernization and liberalization of the judicial and legal system of the country, which form the basis for the reform of the entire regulatory framework in the Republic of Uzbekistan, is also considered. The conclusions and analysis of the issues under consideration are based on the empirical basis of the study, which includes the results of a sociological survey of 500 interrogators, investigators of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Prosecutor General’s Office, criminal judges and lawyers, as well as the analysis of materials from the study of 1000 criminal cases in the archive of the Tashkent City Criminal Court. In addition, the analysis of statistical data on crime records for ten years (2010-2021) was carried out. The article considers the concept of the institution “investigative action”, which today is given an ambiguous meaning from the point of view of criminal procedure law and the theory of criminalistics, and studies the classification of investigative actions. The article examines the dynamics of the development of the institute of investigative actions in criminal proceedings, issues related to the introduction of the term “urgent investigative actions” into the legislation and their list, as well as the problems of creating equal conditions for participants in the process when presenting evidence to the investigator in order to ensure competitiveness. In addition, the need to eliminate the institution of witnesses from the criminal process and the tactics of investigative actions were studied.

Statute of limitations under the penal law of Bulgaria

Ukraine carries out intensive judicial cooperation in criminal matters with other European countries. A typical impediment to granting Ukrainian requests for such cooperation (e.g. extradition from another country, taking over Ukrainian criminal proceedings by the requested foreign country, recognition and enforcement of Ukrainian criminal judgments abroad) is the expiry of the time limitation period [lapse of time] not only under the Ukrainian law but also under the law of the foreign country that Ukraine requests for cooperation. The problem is that the criminal statute of limitations of most European countries is significantly different from the Ukrainian one. In view thereof, Ukrainian criminal lawyers are interested in having some general knowledge of the statute of limitations of other European countries, esp. such as Bulgaria. On the one hand, this foreign country has always been a steady partner of Ukraine in international judicial cooperation. On the other hand, the Bulgarian statute of limitations constitutes a good example of the different type of legal framework for lapse of time that requesting Ukrainian authorities shall necessarily consider. All penal laws of the contemporary Bulgarian state contained some statute of limitations. These laws are the 1896 Penal Law (repealed), the 1951 Penal Law upgraded to the 1956 Penal Code, after the full codification of this branch of law in Bulgaria (also repealed), and the existing Penal Code of 1968. The criminal statute of limitations outlines periods when competent state authorities have been inactive. The expiry of these periods (the lapse of time under law) extinguishes the immediate legal consequences of crimes or the punishments imposed by the court for them. In Bulgaria, the statute of limitations consists of substantive penal law provisions. This is a legislative recognition of its substantive nature. The concept that the criminal statute of limitation is a procedural legal institution has been overcome in Bulgarian theory, law and judicial practice. The statute of limitations produces procedural consequences also but they derive from its direct substantive law results as secondary effects. As in most other countries, the penal law of Bulgaria prescribes two types of limitation periods. The first one runs after the commission of the offence. It is also called 'limitation of the offence'; its expiry entails the extinction of the offender’s criminal liability preventing both the imposition of punishment on him/her and his/her conviction status as well. The second type of limitation period occurs after the imposition of an executable punishment. It is also called 'limitation of the punishment'; its expiry entails the extinction of the punishment imposed only. It does not eliminate the fact that the offender has been convicted. Under the Bulgarian Penal Code, each of the two types of statute of limitations includes not only general time limitations but also absolute ones as well. The former is applicable when the competent state authorities have not undertaken required activities whereas the latter applies only if the competent state authorities have failed to achieve a required result, namely: the imposition of punishment on the offender or the execution of his/her punishment.

Reform Regulation of Novum in Criminal Judges in an Effort to Provide Legal Certainty

The research stems from Decision Number 224 PK/PID.SUS/2018 which grants the application for judicial review (hereinafter abbreviated as PK) by a suspected narcotics abuser with a novum (new evidence) in the form of previous judges' decisions. In this case, this study aims to conceptualize how the regulation of PK legal remedies in criminal cases should be. This research is a normative legal research, the approach used is a case approach, a comparative approach, and a conceptual approach, with a literature study research technique. After knowing the arguments for the admissibility of submitting a PK in the form of a District Court Decision, the author makes several comparisons with the Criminal Procedure Code (America and France), and concludes based on this comparison that the use of the basis for submitting a PK should be regulated clearly and firmly in the Criminal Procedure Code, because the two countries in its criminal procedural law it expressly states that the submission of a PK must be based on new facts and evidence which, if presented at the previous trial, has the potential to reduce or even abort the prosecution's charge

Pre-Trial in the Criminal Justice System in Military Criminal Judges in Indonesia

Law enforcement in the Military Court System in the settlement of criminal cases committed by TNI soldiers is seen as not yet fully guaranteeing legal protection for the rights of suspects, this is due to the absence of a control agency that oversees the actions of law enforcement officers in carrying out their duties and authorities as is the case in the system. General Court. This condition should not drag on indefinitely, because it will affect the law enforcement process and harm the suspect to fight for his rights to obtain justice which results in human rights violations (TNI soldiers). The purpose of the establishment of the Pretrial Institution is as stated in the Elucidation of Article 80 of the Criminal Procedure Code which states that this article intends to uphold law, justice, and truth through horizontal supervision. Settlement of criminal cases in Indonesia in addition to the Code of Criminal Procedure Code (KUHAP) which applies to civil society, we also recognize the existence of the Military Criminal Procedure Code which is regulated in Law Number 31 of 1997 concerning Military Courts, namely the law that regulates the procedure for resolving criminal cases. a criminal case committed by a TNI soldier. The Law on Military Courts includes the provisions of the litigation process (Military Criminal Procedure Law) starting from the investigation stage, submission of cases, the examination process at trial to the implementation of decisions. 31 of 1997 does not regulate pretrial. In several cases in the Military Court where a suspect was detained without a warrant for detention or was late in obtaining a warrant for detention, therefore such actions may conflict with the principles applicable in the provisions of criminal law so that they do not respect the position of the suspect as a creature created by God, even the act can lead to human rights violators. Therefore, in the military justice system in Indonesia, pretrial institutions are needed as a form of horizontal external supervision.

Metaphors judges live by: ‘dirty minds’ and the ‘fear of contamination’ in the new criminal justice system in Mexico

AbstractIn this paper, I take George Lakoff and Mark Johnson's thesis that metaphors shape our reality to approach the judicial imagery of the new criminal justice system in Mexico (in effect since 2016). Based on twenty-nine in-depth interviews with judges and other members of the judiciary, I study what I call the ‘dirty minds’ metaphor, showing its presence in everyday judicial practice and analysing both its cognitive basis as well as its effects in how criminal judges understand their job. I argue that the such a metaphor, together with the ‘fear of contamination’ it raises as a result, is misleading and goes to the detriment of the judicial virtues that should populate the new system. The conclusions I offer are relevant beyond the national context, inter alia, because they concern a far-reaching paradigm of judgment.

Explicit and implicit markers of fairness preeminence in criminal judges

Achieving justice could be considered a complex social decision-making scenario. Despite the relevance of social decisions for legal contexts, these processes have still not been explored for individuals who work as criminal judges dispensing justice. To bridge the gap, we used a complex social decision-making task (Ultimatum game) and tracked a heart rate variability measurement: the square root of the mean squared differences of successive NN intervals (RMSSD) at their baseline (as an implicit measurement that tracks emotion regulation behavior) for criminal judges (n = 24) and a control group (n = 27). Our results revealed that, compared to controls, judges were slower and rejected a bigger proportion of unfair offers. Moreover, the rate of rejections and the reaction times were predicted by higher RMSSD scores for the judges. This study provides evidence about the impact of legal background and expertise in complex social decision-making. Our results contribute to understanding how expertise can shape criminal judges’ social behaviors and pave the way for promising new research into the cognitive and physiological factors associated with social decision-making.

Impact of Judicial Logic on Criminal Sentences

This study aims in the astronomy of the philosophy of judicial logic in order to reveal the important role of sound judicial logic in the construction of criminal judgments, as long as judicial thinking is inevitably based on the rules of sound logic using the methods of judicial inference that reveal the nature of causal links between fixed facts and legal texts. Judicial logic in the curricula of law teaching casts a shadow over the art of maintaining judicial rulings. Thus, one of the recommendations of this study is the need to include the science of judicial logic in the curricula of law teaching, with the need to pay attention to the art of maintaining judicial rulings. Keywords: Judicial reasoning, logical reasoning, conditioning, corruption in reasoning, standard reasoning. DOI: 10.7176/JLPG/113-05 Publication date: September 30 th 2021

The Judiciary Power of Discretion in Sanctioning the Facilitation of Unauthorised Stay in Poland

Migration control in Poland is significantly based on internal control practices carried out by street-level bureaucrats representing both law enforcement agents and low-level judges equipped with discretionary power. Based on empirical data from 243 criminal cases of facilitating unauthorised stay in Poland, we reflected on how the mentioned actors and, in particular, criminal judges interpret the existing provisions and to what extent they study cases independently or simply follow the logic of the law enforcement. We based our analysis on two distinct forms of identified cases of ‘supporting’ irregular migration; that is, participation in sham marriages and involvement in document fraud. We conclude that judges lacking expertise in the field relatively new to them may be less prone to question the effects of the preparatory proceedings, and they are not keen to look for any answers for themselves, especially to scrutinise and refer to the European Union law or jurisprudence. In their ‘craftwork’, they face cases that seem similar to them and, thus, not deserving of special attention. Judges lack the broader knowledge and possibly also reflexive thinking in assessing migration-related criminal cases brought to the courts by border guards, who prove their effectiveness inter alia through numbers of detected facilitators, not necessarily the roles played by them. All this may lead to unnecessarily broadening the scope of control over immigrants and a failure in achieving the objectives of criminal provisions.

The Urgency of Regulation of the Ultra Qui Judicat Principle in Criminal Judgments

There is a provision for the judge not to impose a sentence on the defendant if the act is not described carefully, clearly, and ultimately in the public prosecutor's indictment. However, in practice in the court, some judges deviate from the articles charged by the Public Prosecutor. Therefore, this article will analyze the urgency of regulating the ultra qui judicat principle in criminal case decisions. The analysis will be carried out using a normative legal research method using a case approach and data sources from laws and regulations, judges' decisions. The analysis results show that the concrete regulation of the ultra qui judicat principle in the form of legal norms in the Judicial Power Act will benefit judges in deciding cases. The Public Prosecutor's inaccuracy in preparing the indictment, especially the placement of the articles indicted, will be very detrimental to law enforcement and injure the judge's justice in deciding the case. On the other hand, if this principle is not regulated concretely in legal norms, it will open up space for many dissenting opinions on the judge's decision.