Practice question · Multiple choice
The requirement of lex certa binds the legislator rather than the trial judge. Why does this distinction matter for the separation of powers?
Hints
- Who holds the legitimate constitutional authority to define prohibited conduct?
- What happens to the division between branches if a statute is drafted ambiguously?
Show the answer
D. It prevents judges from defining criminal conduct through vague statutory terms
Why
Confusing the duty of precision with judicial interpretation overlooks why legality limits state coercion. The legislator alone holds democratic legitimacy to define offences; leaving vague texts for judges to clarify invites arbitrary criminalisation under the guise of statutory interpretation.
Practise The Principle of Legality
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More questions on The Principle of Legality
- Arrange these statements of the principle of legality in chronological order.
- Why is it consistent to forbid retroactive criminal law and at the same time apply a later, milder law to…
- In Spain a custom cannot create a criminal offence.
- Complete the requirements of the criminal statute.
- How many identities must coincide before the principle of non bis in idem prevents a second sanction?
- The prohibition of analogy in criminal law bars any analogical reasoning whatever, including reasoning that…
- Arrange the checks a court makes under the principle of legality, in the order they arise.
- Sort each defect by the requirement of the criminal statute that it violates.
- Which are true of the requirement of lex certa?