Practice question · True or false
The principle of exclusive protection of legal goods permits criminalising conduct solely on the ground that a majority regards it as immoral.
Hints
- Ask what interest is being protected in such a case.
- The principle requires an identifiable good, not a shared sentiment.
Show the answer
False
Why
False. The principle requires an identifiable interest of sufficient importance to a person or to social life. Widespread moral disapproval is not by itself such an interest, and an offence resting on nothing else is hard to defend on this principle, which is exactly the ground on which many historical offences were eventually repealed.
Practise The Other Limits on the Power to Punish
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