Criminal Justice Act (with its many variations) is a stock short title used for legislation in the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Canada relating to the criminal law (including both substantive and procedural aspects of that law). It tends to be used for Acts that do not have a single cohesive subject matter.
The Bill for an Act with this short title will have been known as a Criminal Justice Bill during its passage through Parliament.
Criminal Justice Acts may be a generic name either for legislation bearing that short title or for all legislation which relates to the criminal law. It is not a term of art.
See also Criminal Law Act and Criminal Law Amendment Act.
Famous quotes containing the words criminal justice, criminal, justice and/or act:
“Squeeze human nature into the straitjacket of criminal justice and crime will appear.”
—Karl Kraus (1874–1936)
“A criminal trial is like a Russian novel: it starts with exasperating slowness as the characters are introduced to a jury, then there are complications in the form of minor witnesses, the protagonist finally appears and contradictions arise to produce drama, and finally as both jury and spectators grow weary and confused the pace quickens, reaching its climax in passionate final argument.”
—Clifford Irving (b. 1930)
“Mere human beings can’t afford to be fanatical about anything.... Not even about justice or loyalty. The fanatic for justice ends by murdering a million helpless people to clear a space for his law-courts. If we are to survive on this planet, there must be compromises.”
—Storm Jameson (1891–1986)
“I look on trade and every mechanical craft as education also. But let me discriminate what is precious herein. There is in each of these works an act of invention, an intellectual step, or short series of steps taken; that act or step is the spiritual act; all the rest is mere repetition of the same a thousand times.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)