Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-03T19:06:28.073Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Malum prohibitum—Malum in se Distinction and the Wrongfulness Constraint on Criminalization

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 June 2016

SUSAN DIMOCK
SUSAN DIMOCK*
Affiliation:
York University
*
*<[email protected]>
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The criminal law distinction between conduct malum in se and malum prohibitum is five centuries old in common law jurisdictions and yet both its meaning and its usefulness remain matters of debate. I join the fray, arguing (a) that the terms cannot be interpreted literally, but that (b) there is a way of drawing the distinction that is both plausible and useful. Conduct mala in se is conduct that must be prohibited in any just polity, while mala prohibita conduct may but need not be criminalized. I employ concepts from social contract theory in the explanation.

La distinction de droit pénal entre la conduite malum in se et malum prohibitum est vieille de cinq siècles dans les juridictions de common law, et pourtant son sens autant que son utilité continuent d’être débattus. Je me joins à la mêlée, en faisant valoir (a) que les conditions ne peuvent pas être interprétées littéralement, mais que (b) il existe un moyen d’établir la distinction qui est à la fois plausible et utile. Une conduite mala in se est un comportement qui doit être interdit dans toute société politique juste, alors que la conduite mala prohibita peut être criminalisée, mais ne doit pas absolument l’être. Je sollicite dans mon explication des concepts de la théorie du contrat social.

Type
Special Topic: Mala in se and Mala prohibita
Information
Dialogue: Canadian Philosophical Review / Revue canadienne de philosophie , Volume 55 , Issue 1 , March 2016 , pp. 9 - 32
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Philosophical Association 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bentham, Jeremy 1776–1777 “A Comment on the Commentaries.” In The Collected Works of Jeremy Bentham, edited by Burns, J.H., and Hart, H.L.A.. London: Athlone Press.Google Scholar
Dimock, Susan 2014 “Contractarian Criminal Law Theory and Mala prohibita Offences.” In The Political Morality of the Criminal Law, edited by Duff, R.A., Farmer, Lindsay, Marshall, S.E., Renzo, Massimo, and Tadros, Victor, Chapter 6: 151–181. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Dimock, Susan 1997 “Retributivism and Trust,” Law and Philosophy 16 (1): 37–62.Google Scholar
Dressler, Joshua 2006 Understanding the Criminal Law, 4th ed. New York: Lexus.Google Scholar
Du Bois-Pedain, Antje 2014 “The Wrongfulness Constraint in Criminalization,” Criminal Law and Philosophy 8: 149–169.Google Scholar
Duff, R.A. 2014 “Towards a Modest Legal Moralism,” Criminal Law and Philosophy 8 (1): 217–235.Google Scholar
Duff, R.A. 2012 “Political Retributivism and Legal Moralism,” Virginia Journal of Criminal Law 1: 179–204.Google Scholar
Duff, R.A. 2011 “Responsibility, Citizenship, and Criminal Law.” In Philosophical Foundations of Criminal Law, edited by Duff, R.A., and Green, Stuart P., 125–148. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Duff, R.A. 2010a “Perversions and Subversions of Criminal Law.” In Duff, , et al. 2010, Chapter 4: 88–112. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Duff, R.A. 2010b “Towards a Theory of Criminal Law?” Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society LXXXIV: 1–28.Google Scholar
Duff, R.A. 2010c “A Criminal Law for Citizens,” Theoretical Criminology 14: 293–309.Google Scholar
Duff, R.A. 2007 Answering for Crime: Responsibility and Liability in the Criminal Law. Oxford: Hart Publishing.Google Scholar
Duff, R.A. 2002 “Crime, Prohibition, and Punishment,” Journal of Applied Philosophy 19 (2): 97–108.Google Scholar
Duff, R.A., Farmer, Lindsay, Marshall, S.E., Renzo, Massimo, and Tadros, Victor, eds. 2010 The Boundaries of the Criminal Law. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Duff, R.A., Farmer, Lindsay, Marshall, S.E., Renzo, Massimo, and Tadros, Victor, eds. 2011 The Structures of the Criminal Law. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Duff, R.A., Farmer, Lindsay, Marshall, S.E., Renzo, Massimo, and Tadros, Victor, eds. 2013 The Constitution of the Criminal Law. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Duff, R.A., Farmer, Lindsay, Marshall, S.E., Renzo, Massimo, and Tadros, Victor, eds. 2014 The Political Morality of the Criminal Law. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Duff, R.A., and Green, Stuart, eds. 2005 Defining Crimes: Essays on the Special Part of the Criminal Law. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Duff, R.A., and Marshall, S.E. 2010 “Public and Private Wrongs.” In Essays in Criminal Law in Honour of Sir Gerald Gordon, edited by Chalmers, James, Leverick, Fiona, and Farmer, Lindsay, 70–85. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Edwards, J.R., and Simester, A.P. 2014 “Wrongfulness and Prohibitions,” Criminal Law and Philosophy 8: 171–186.Google Scholar
Farmer, Lindsay 2010 “Criminal Wrongs in Historical Perspective.” In Duff, , et al. 2010, Chapter 9: 214–237. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Gauthier, David 1997 “Political Contractarianism,” Journal of Political Philosophy 5 (2): 132–148.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gray, Richard L. 1995 “Eliminating the (Absurd) Distinction between Malum in se and Malum prohibitum Crimes,” Washington University Law Quarterly 73 (3): 1369–1398.Google Scholar
Green, Stuart P. 2012 Thirteen Ways to Steal a Bicycle. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Green, Stuart P. 2005 Lying, Cheating, and Stealing: A Moral Theory of White-Collar Crime. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Green, Stuart P. 1997 “Why it’s a Crime to Tear the Tag off a Mattress: Overcriminalization and the Moral Content of Regulatory Offenses,” Emory Law Journal 46: 1533–1615.Google Scholar
Hobbes, Thomas 1651 Leviathan, or The Matter, Form, and Power of a Common-Wealth Ecclesiastical and Civil. London: Stevens.Google Scholar
Husak, Douglas N. 2010 “Malum prohibitum and Retribution.” In Duff, , et al. 2010, Chapter 6: 410–432. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Husak, Douglas N. 2009 “Convergent Ends, Divergent Means: A Response to My Critics,” Criminal Justice Ethics 28: 123–138.Google Scholar
Husak, Douglas N. 2008 Overcriminalization: The Limits of the Criminal Law. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Husak, Douglas N. 2005 “Malum prohibitum and Retributivism.” In Defining Crimes: Essays on the Special Part of Criminal Law, edited by Duff, R.A., and Green, Stuart, 65–90. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Husak, Douglas N. 2004 “Crimes Outside the Core,” Tulsa Law Review 39: 755–780.Google Scholar
LaFave, Wayne R. 2003 Criminal Law, 4th ed. St. Paul, MN: West Group.Google Scholar
Marshall, S.E., and Duff, R.A. 1998 “Criminalization and Sharing Wrongs,” Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence XI: 7–22.Google Scholar
Moore, Michael S. 2009 “A Tale of Two Theories,” Criminal Justice Ethics 28 (1): 27–48.Google Scholar
Moore, Michael S. 1998/2010 Placing Blame. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Rawls, John 1971 A Theory of Justice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Shute, Stephen, and Simester, Andrew 2002 Criminal Law Theory: Doctrines of the General Part. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Simester, Andrew, and von Hirsch, Andreas 2011 Crimes, Harms, and Wrongs: On the Principles of Criminalisation. Oxford: Hart Publishing.Google Scholar
Tadros, Victor 2011 The Ends of Harm: The Moral Foundations of Criminal Law. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.Google Scholar
Thorburn, Malcolm 2011 “Constitutionalism and the Limits of the Criminal Law.” In Duff, , et al. 2011, Chapter 5: 85–105. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
von Hirsch, Andreas 2014 “Harm and Wrongdoing in Criminalisation Theory,” Criminal Law and Philosophy 8: 245–256.Google Scholar
Wellman, Christopher Heath 2013 “Rights Forfeiture and Mala prohibita.” In Duff, , et al. 2013, Chapter 5: 77–96. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Williams, Glanville 1961 Criminal Law: The General Part, 2nd ed. London: Stevens.Google Scholar
Young, Robert 2009 “Douglas Husak on Dispensing with the malum prohibitum Offense of Money Laundering,” Criminal Justice Ethics 28: 108–118.Google Scholar