Blacks Law Dict. 1st ed

MAJESTATIS

302

CRIMINAL PROCEDURE

CRIMEN

CRIMINAL CONTEMPT. Aeon tempt of court which consists in openly in sulting or resisting the powers of the court or the persons of the judges who preside there. Otherwise called "direct" contempt. 4 Bl. Comm. 283. CRIMINAL CONVERSATION* Adultery, considered in its aspect of a civil injury to the husband entitling him to dam ages; the tort of debauching or seducing of a wife. Often abbreviated to erim. eon. CRIMINAL INFORMATION. A criminal suit brought, without interposition of a grand jury, by the proper officer of the king or state. Cole, Crim. Inf.; 4 Bl. Comm. 398. CRIMINAL INTENT. The intent to commit a crime; malice, as evidenced by a criminal act. CRIMINAL LAW. That branch Or di vision of law which treats of crimes and their punishments. In the plural—"criminal laws"—the term may denote the laws which define and pro hibit the various species of crimes and estab lish their punishments. CRIMINAL LAW AMENDMENT ACT. This act was passed in 1871, (34 & 35 Viet. c. 32,) to prevent and punish any violence, threats, or molestation, on the part either of master or workmen, in the various relations arising between them. 4 Steph. Comm. 241. CRIMINAL LAW CONSOLIDA TION ACTS. The statutes 24 & 25 Viet, cc. 94-100, passed in 1861, for the consolida tion of the criminal law of England and Ire land. 4 Steph. Comm. 297. These impor tant statutes amount to a codification of the modern criminal law of England. CRIMINAL LETTERS. In Scotch law. A process used as the commencement of a criminal proceeding, in the nature of a sum mons issued by the lord advocate or his dep uty. It resembles a criminal information at common law. CRIMINAL LIBEL. A libel which is punishable criminally; one which tends to excite a breach of the peace. CRIMINAL PROCEDURE. The method pointed out by law for the apprehen sion, trial, or prosecution, and fixing the punishment, of those persons who have broken or violated, or are supposed to have

CRIMEN LJESiE MAJESTATIS. In criminal law. The crime of lese-majesty, or injuring majesty or royalty; high treason. The term was used by the older English law writers to denote any crime affecting the king's person or dignity. It is borrowed from the civil law, in which it signified the undertaking of any enterprise against the emperor or the republic. Inst. 4, 18,3. Crimen lessee majestatis omnia alia crimina excedit quoad pcenam. 3 Inst. 210. The crime of treason exceeds all other crimes in its punishment. Crimen omnia ex se nata vitiat. Crime vitiates everything which springs from it. 5 Hill, 523, 531. CRIMEN RAPTUS. The offense of rape. CRIMEN ROBERIJE. The offense of robbery. Crimen trahit personam. The crime carries the person, (i. e., the commission of a crime gives the courts of the place where it is committed jurisdiction over the person of the offender.) 3 Denio, 190, 210. Crimina morte extinguuntur. Crimes are extinguished by death. CRIMINAL. That which pertains to or is connected with the law of crimes, or the administration of penal justice, or which re lates to or has the character of crime. Also a person who has committed a crime; one who is guilty of a felony or misdemeanor. CRIMINAL ACT. A term which is equivalent to crime; or is sometimes used with a slight softening or glossing of the meaning, or as importing a possible question of the legal guilt of the deed. CRIMINAL ACTION. The proceeding by which a party charged with a public of fense is accused and brought to trial and pun ishment is known as a "criminal action." Pen. Code Cal. § 683. A criminal action is (1) an action prose cuted by the state as a party, against a per son charged with a public offense, for the punishment thereof; (2) an action prosecuted by the state, at the instance of an individual, to prevent an apprehended crime, against his person or property. Code N. C. 1883, § 129. CRIMINAL CASE. An action, suit, or cause instituted to punish an infraction of the criminal laws.

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