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Judicial Discretion
Judicial discretion is the power of the judiciary to make some legal decisions according to their discretion. Under the doctrine of the separation of powers, the ability of judges to exercise discretion is an aspect of judicial independence. Where appropriate, judicial discretion allows a judge to decide a legal case or matter within a range of possible decisions. However, where the exercise of discretion goes beyond constraints set down by legislation, by binding precedent, or by a constitution, the court may be abusing its discretion and undermining the rule of law. In that case, the decision of the court may be ''ultra vires'', and may sometimes be characterized as judicial activism. In 1824, US Chief Justice John Marshall wrote the following on this subject: Judicial power, as contradistinguished from the power of the laws, has no existence. Courts are the mere instruments of the law, and can will nothing. When they are said to exercise a discretion, it is a mere legal disc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Judiciary
The judiciary (also known as the judicial system, judicature, judicial branch, judiciative branch, and court or judiciary system) is the system of courts that adjudicates legal disputes/disagreements and interprets, defends, and applies the law in legal cases. Meaning The judiciary is the system of courts that interprets, defends, and applies the law in the name of the state. The judiciary can also be thought of as the mechanism for the resolution of disputes. Under the doctrine of the separation of powers, the judiciary generally does not make statutory law (which is the responsibility of the legislature) or enforce law (which is the responsibility of the executive), but rather interprets, defends, and applies the law to the facts of each case. However, in some countries the judiciary does make common law. In many jurisdictions the judicial branch has the power to change laws through the process of judicial review. Courts with judicial review power may annul the laws ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sex Offender Registries In The United States
In the United States, sex offender registries exist at both the federal and state levels. The federal registry is known as the National Sex Offender Public Website (NSOPW) and integrates data in all state, territorial, and tribal registries provided by offenders required to register. Registries contain information about persons convicted of sexual offenses for law enforcement and public notification purposes. All 50 states and the District of Columbia maintain sex offender registries that are open to the public via websites; most information on offenders is visible to the public. Public disclosure of offender information varies between the states depending on offenders' designated tier, which may also vary from state to state, or risk assessment result. According to NCMEC, as of 2016 there were 859,500 registered sex offenders in United States. The majority of states and the federal government apply systems based on conviction offenses only, where registration requirement is tri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Criminal Law
Criminal law is the body of law that relates to crime. It proscribes conduct perceived as threatening, harmful, or otherwise endangering to the property, health, safety, and Well-being, welfare of people inclusive of one's self. Most criminal law is established by statute, which is to say that the laws are enacted by a legislature. Criminal law includes the punishment and Rehabilitation (penology), rehabilitation of people who violate such laws. Criminal law varies according to jurisdiction, and differs from Civil law (common law), civil law, where emphasis is more on dispute resolution and victim compensation, rather than on punishment or Rehabilitation (penology), rehabilitation. Criminal procedure is a formalized official activity that authenticates the fact of commission of a crime and authorizes punitive or rehabilitative treatment of the Criminal, offender. History The first Civilization, civilizations generally did not distinguish between Civil law (area), civil law and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sentencing Disparity
Sentencing disparity or ''sentencing discrimination'' is defined as "a form of unequal treatment in criminal punishment". Variation among judges Two judges could be faced with a similar case and one could order a very harsh sentence while another would give a much lesser sentence. There is evidence that some U.S. federal judges give much longer prison sentences for similar offenses than other judges do. In 2005 Max Schanzenbach found that "increasing the proportion of female judges in a district decreases the sex disparity" in sentencing which he interprets as "evidence of a paternalistic bias among male judges that favors female offenders". A 2020 study found with decreasing number of female judges in French courts the gender gaps in prison and probation sentences widens - prison and probation sentences are lighter for women, while suspended prison sentences are longer. The gender of the prosecutor seem to play no role. By gender or sex United States A 2001 University of Geor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Political Bias
Political bias refers to the bias or manipulation of information to favor a particular political position, party, or candidate. Closely associated with a media bias, it often describes how journalists, television programs, or news organizations party political figures or policy issues. Bias emerges in a political context when individuals engage in an inability or an unwillingness to understand a politically opposing point of view. Such bias in individuals may have its roots in their personality traits and thinking styles; it is unclear whether individuals at particular positions along the political spectrum are more biased than any other individuals. Political bias exists beyond simple presentation and understanding of view-points favouring a particular political leader or party, but transcends into the readings and interactions undertaken daily among individuals. The prevalence of political bias has a lasting impact with proven effects on voter behaviour and consequent po ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Close Case
In the law, a close case is generally defined as a ruling that could conceivably be decided in more than one way. Various scholars have attempted to articulate criteria for identifying close cases, and commentators have observed that reliance upon precedent established in close cases leads to the gradual expansion of legal doctrines. Identifying close cases Although some scholars have suggested that "a close case is in the eye of the beholder", other scholars have attempted to articulate specific criteria for identifying close cases. Maureen Armoor, for example, defines close cases as "the articulable outer limit of judicial discretion that most closely approximates the phenomenological experience of a sitting judge, in particular the dimension of discretion called into play when a judge is uncertain about an outcome". Ward Farnsworth, dean of the University of Texas School of Law, has suggested that close cases could be defined as either "cases close enough to provoke dissent" or ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aharon Barak
Aharon Barak (; born 16 September 1936) is an Israeli lawyer and jurist who served as President of the Supreme Court of Israel from 1995 to 2006. Prior to this, Barak served as a Justice of the Supreme Court of Israel from 1978 to 1995, and before this as Attorney General of Israel from 1975 to 1978. Barak was born with the name of Erik Brick in Kaunas, Lithuania in 1936. Having survived the Holocaust, he and his family later immigrated to Mandatory Palestine in 1947. He studied law, international relations and economics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and obtained his Bachelor of Laws in 1958. Between 1958 and 1960, he was drafted into the Israeli military. From 1974 to 1975, Barak was dean of the law faculty of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Barak is currently a law professor at Reichman University in Herzliya, and has taught at institutions including Yale Law School, Central European University, Georgetown University Law Center, and the University of Toronto ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
RSOL
The National Association for Rational Sexual Offense Laws (NARSOL) is an organization headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina with operations based in Albuquerque, New Mexico and with affiliated organizations, advocates, and contacts in the vast majority of states. NARSOL and its affiliates are part of a movement to reform sexual offense laws in the United States. NARSOL has generated media attention by arranging national conferences in multiple cities including Boston, Albuquerque, Los Angeles Dallas, Atlanta, Cleveland, Houston, and Raleigh, and by being involved in numerous lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of sex offender registration and notification laws. Positions While NARSOL believes that offenders should be held accountable in court of law, it criticizes current sex offender registry laws in the United States. NARSOL asserts that current sex offender laws are not based on scientific evidence. Organizations such as Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Women Against Registry
Women Against Registry (W.A.R.) is a U.S. non-profit organization, based in Arnold, Missouri, which works to obtain changes in laws affecting sex offenders. Most W.A.R. members are mothers, wives, girlfriends, and other family members of persons convicted of a sexual offense. W.A.R. advocates the abolition of sex offender registries altogether, but also wants officials to be more judicious in deciding who poses a risk, instead of the current policies applied to all offenders indiscriminately. Purpose The organization is focused on fostering awareness of the collateral damage suffered by the families of registrants. It asserts that while there is no evidence to support the effectiveness of public sex offender registries in deterring sexual crime, the registrants, their children, spouses, and other family members, numbering in the hundreds of thousands, suffer daily harassment, social exclusion, depression, anxiety, and even vigilante attacks; this contributes to the destruction ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Families Against Mandatory Minimums
Families Against Mandatory Minimums (FAMM) is an American nonprofit advocacy organization founded in 1991 to challenge mandatory sentencing laws and advocate for criminal justice reform. FAMM promotes sentencing policies that give judges the discretion to distinguish between defendants and sentence them according to their role in the offense, the seriousness of the offense, and their potential for rehabilitation. FAMM's members include prisoners and their families, attorneys, judges, criminal justice experts, and concerned citizens. In 2018, ''The Washington Post'' described FAMM as "one of the leading organizations that have pushed for criminal justice changes." The organization's founder, Julie Stewart, started FAMM shortly after her brother was convicted of growing marijuana plants near his home and given a mandatory five year federal prison sentence. FAMM organized lobbying efforts in support of the First Step Act, a law which reforms the U.S. federal prison system and se ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lesser Included Offense
In criminal law, a lesser included offense is a crime for which all of the elements necessary to impose liability are also elements found in a more serious crime. It is also used in non-criminal violations of law, such as certain classes of traffic offenses. For example, the common law crime of larceny requires the taking and carrying away of tangible property from another person, with the intent of permanently depriving the owner of that property. Robbery, under the common law, requires all of the same elements and also the use of force or intimidation to accomplish the taking. Therefore, larceny is a lesser included offense in the offense of robbery, as every robbery includes a larcenous act as part of the crime. Assault is also a lesser included offense of robbery, just as false imprisonment is usually a lesser included offense of kidnapping. However, an offense will not be a lesser included offense if it carries a maximum penalty greater than that carried by the charged offe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Indictment
An indictment ( ) is a formal accusation that a person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that use the concept of felonies, the most serious criminal offense is a felony; jurisdictions that do not use that concept often use that of an indictable offence, which is an offence that requires an indictment. Australia Section 80 of the Constitution of Australia provides that "the trial on indictment of any offence against any law of the Commonwealth shall be by jury". The High Court of Australia has consistently used a narrow interpretation of this clause, allowing the Parliament of Australia to define which offences proceed on indictment rather than conferring a universal right to a jury trial. Section 4G of the '' Crimes Act 1914'' provides that "offences against a law of the Commonwealth punishable by imprisonment for a period exceeding 12 months are indictable offences, unless the contrary intention appears". Canada A direct indictment is one in which the case is sent dir ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
