Posted: August 17th, 2022
Language requirements in our criminal statutes
Law
Language requirements in our criminal statutes
The utilization of language is vital to any legal system. A written sequence follows an individual from the time of their arrest until the day they appear in court, and it is all supported by carefully drafted legislation (Solan, 2010). Therefore, several language requirements have been set to guide the criminal justice system. For instance, criminal statutes must be written using a simple language. This is aimed at making them understandable by all citizens, regardless of their intellectual capacity. The statutes must also be drafted in a language that is precise and unambiguous. This makes it easy to interpret them and hence make them enforceable. The language used in the statutes must be flexible and inclusive enough. This is aimed at ensuring that they account for the randomness of human conduct.
The legal effect of vague or indefinite statutes
Vague or indefinite statutes are void, meaning that they have no legal effect and as such, they are not enforceable. A vague statute may be difficult to comprehend. For instance, a statute that fails to explicitly and definitely explain what behaviour is punishable has no legal effect because citizens do not know what exactly is expected of them with regards to the law (Epps, 2014). Vague laws also fail to provide sufficient guidance to those who would abide by the law, to advise defendants of the offense nature with which they are charged, or to provide guidance to courts in trying those who are charged. In such situations, men of ordinary intellect cannot be required to guess at the meaning of an enactment. In other circumstances, vague or indefinite statutes may be deemed unconstitutional (Harr, Hess & Orthmann, 2011). This is particularly true if the law is worded in a standardless manner that invites random enforcement.
References
Epps, G. (2014). American Justice 2014: Nine Clashing Visions on the Supreme Court.
Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Harr, J., Hess, K., & Orthmann, C. (2011). Constitutional Law and the Criminal Justice
System. Cengage Learning.
Solan, L. (2010). The Language of Statutes: Laws and Their Interpretation. Chicago, IL:
University of Chicago Press.
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