Substantive Criminal Law in Australia, Canada, and USA

Criminal law is quite wide. It involves substantive criminal law, criminal investigations, and penal institutions among others. Substantive criminal law is the kind of law that prohibits people from having some conducts. This law restricts some behaviors and failure to comply with it brings about punishment. These prohibitions are mainly put there to protect the public. The prohibitions include maintaining peace and harmony, preserving morals, protecting the public from harm among others. Criminal responsibility is one’s ability to understand his conduct/thoughts at the time a crime is committed. For instance, when a crime is committed, what does one think? Or what results does one expect?

Definitions of criminal responsibility, similarities and differences in substantive law in each country

In USA, there are different substantive criminal laws in every state and also in every federal government. Every state and every city/town is supposed to enforce its own laws and also the laws that are made by the national government. Laws of the state are made by the state legislature while the federal laws are made and passed by the congress. There are around 20 federal agencies (Potter, 2013). The most common federal agencies include Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the secret service, the Drug Enforcement Administration among others. The prosecutors of these federal agencies are called U.S attorneys and they have the right to prosecute federal crimes. They are only answerable to the attorney general. USA has no common law, all its laws are made by the state legislature and congress. There are crimes that violate both federal and state laws. There are several crimes under the federal legislature that have been prosecuted by the state, among them drug trafficking and kidnapping. Different states and federal governments have different criminal procedures (Potter, 2013). State criminal procedures are defined by the state legislature while the federal criminal procedures are defined by the judicial advisory committee.

In Canada, criminal justice system helps ensure safety of the citizens. The system operates on common law and the civil law. It seeks its principles from the histories of the both. The parliament has the authority to make laws and also come up with the criminal procedures (Mcshane, 2013). Different provinces have the authority to implement and defend the law. Both the province and the parliament work together to ensure that there is peace in the country. Thus, they have to cooperate and carry out their duties well. Thus, when the federal government makes laws, it has to consult with the provinces and ensure that everything is in line.

NEED A SIMILAR ESSAY? OUR EXPERT WRITERS ARE ON STANDBY!

Send Us the Instructions and We will Get it Done in No Time

Australia has a criminal justice system that has been inherited from England. The system aims at protecting the citizens and their property. The system helps determine which activities are criminal and which are not. The country has nine legal systems. It has eight state systems and one federal system (Biles, 2017). The Australian Commonwealth has the authority to make and enforce some laws, for example commerce and trade laws. Like USA, different states and federal governments have the authority to enact their own laws. Through the legislation and the common law, peace and order is maintained by everyone in the society.

The types of policing

The law enforcement system in USA has a decentralized model of policing. The system has different structures that are allowed to operate independently. The local government makes its own policies since it is hard to operate on policies made by the national government. However, all parts of the system have to work together in harmony (Potter, 2013). There are areas that both the federal and the state government have to work together and there are some policies that have to work for both systems.

Canada uses both centralized and decentralized policing systems. The state and federal governments are quite decentralized. They have the authority to make and enforce their own laws. However, the law enforcement system is quite centralized. Canada is under three police agencies: Ontario Provincial Police, the Royal Canadian Mounted police, and the Surete du Quebec (Mcshane, 2013). The police agencies work in harmony to maintain law and order. However, there are still different policing models that they use.

The Australian government is centralized at the national level but decentralized at the local level. Since it has adopted its criminal justice system from England, it has a similar model of policing as England (Biles, 2017). The law enforcement system has a decentralized legal system that is organized separately but harmoniously.

Forms of judicial review

Judicial review of any administrative action can only be applied if the decision was made by the government. Judicial review is an action that allows someone to challenge a decision that has been made by the court. The Canadian judicial review comes from the English system (Mcshane, 2013). The court has a right to hear or not to hear a judicial review. Before the court listens to any review, it has to ensure that it has standing and that there is an error that has been made.

The judicial review in USA is not very different from the Canadian one. The constitution does not state the powers of a judicial review. Courts have a right to review actual cases that have happened or any controversies (Potter, 2013). However, at least one party must have a legal standing to seek a court hearing.

In Australia, judicial review is seen as an action that helps keep the judiciary in check. However, judicial review varies from state to state.

References

Potter, G. (2013). The history of policing in the United States, part 1. Police studies online.

Biles, D. (2017). Crime and justice in Australia. Australian institute of criminology.

Mcshane, K. G. (2013). Substantive Law. The Canadian encyclopedia.