Criminal Law
There are many sources of criminal law in Bhutanese legislation. The highest legal authority, the Constitution of Bhutan, prohibits capital punishment. Other acts of Parliament criminalize specific acts and practices: for example, the Tobacco Act criminalizes the cultivation, manufacture, and sale of tobacco and tobacco products, restricts public tobacco use, criminalizes non-health-related depictions of tobacco in motion media, and modifies the crime of smuggling to include possession of tobacco beyond a person's allotted limit; also, immigration- and customs-related criminal offenses and penalties, as well as quasi-criminal procedure for deportation and detention, are enumerated in the Immigration Act of 2007.
The most comprehensive pieces of legislation codifying Bhutanese criminal law and procedure have been the National Security Act of 1992, the Civil and Criminal Procedure Code of 2001, and the Penal Code of 2004. The National Security Act pertains mostly to treason and speech crimes, and to unlawful assembly, rioting, and states of emergency. The Penal code classifies crimes according to severity, defines the elements and defenses to crimes, and provides a framework for sentencing criminals. The Code sets forth a criminal law framework analogous to that any modern common law jurisdiction, for instance division of mens rea into negligence, recklessness, and intent.
The classes of crimes defined by the Code are felony, misdemeanor, petty misdemeanor, and violation. Misdemeanors result in imprisonment for one year or more but less than three years; petty misdemeanors result in imprisonment for one month or more but less than one year; and violations result in a fine. Felonies are graded into four degrees. First degree felonies are punishable by prison terms of fifteen years to life; second degree felonies – nine to fifteen years; third degree felonies – five to nine years; and fourth degree felonies – three to five years.
Elements and defenses to crimes are codified thematically, along with their class and grading. For example, premeditated murder is listed among "homicide", graded as a first degree felony; and unnatural sex, including sodomy, is listed among "sexual offences," graded as a petty misdemeanor.
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Famous quotes containing the words criminal and/or law:
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—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)
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—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)