Legal Dictionary of Pakistan
Quick lookup for English, Urdu, and Latin legal terms used in Pakistani jurisprudence.
Bonum defendentis ex integra causa; malum ex quolibet defectu
A good outcome for the defendant comes from a sound case; a bad outcome from some defect
Consortio malorum me quoque malum facit
The company of wicked men makes me also wicked.
In facto quod se habet ad bonum et malum magis de bona quam de malo lex intendit.
In an act (or deed) that may be considered good or bad, the law looks more to the good than to the bad.
Lex citius tolerare vult privatum damnum quam publicum malum
The law would sooner endure a private loss than a public evil.
Malum
n [Latin] Something bad or evil. Pl. males.
Malum non habet effscientem sed deficientem causam
Evil has not an efficient but a deficient cause.
Malum non praesumitur
Evil is not presumed.
Malum quo communius eo pejus
The more common the evil, the worse.
Non facias malum ut inde veniat bonum
You are not to do evil that good may come of it
Quamvis aliquid per se non sit malum, tamen si sit mali exempli, non est faciendum
Although in itself a thing may not be bad, yet if it serves as a bad example, it is not to be done.
Quando aliquid per se non sit malum, tamen si sit mali exempli, non est faciendum
When anything by itself is not evil, and yet if it is an example for evil, it is not to be done.
Quod alias bonum et justum est, si per vim vel fraudem petatur, malum et injustum effxcitur
What is otherwise good and just, if it is sought by force or fraud, becomes bad and unjust.
crime malum in se
See MALUM IN SE.
crime malum prohibitum
See MALUM PROHIBITUM.
malum in se
n. [Latin "evil in itself"] A crime or an act that is inherently immoral, such as murder, arson, or rape. - Also termed malum per se. Pl. males in se. - malum in se, adj. Cf. MALUM PROHIBITUM. "The basis for the distinction between mala in se and mala prohibita, between what one might call a crime and an offence - or between what one might call a felony and a misdemeanour, if one could modernize those terms so that the latter was given its natural meaning - is that crime means to the ordinary man something that is sinful or immoral, and an offence at worst a piece of misbehaviour." Patrick Devlin, The Enforcement of Morals 33 (1968). "The distinction between offenses mala in se and offenses mala prohibita was recognized at least as early as the fifteenth century. It has been criticized repeatedly. About a century and a half ago the distinction was said to be one 'not founded upon any sound principle' and which had 'long since been exploded.' [Quoting Bensley u. Bignold, 5 B. & A. 335, 341, 106 Eng. Rep. 1214, 1216 (1822); other citations omitted.] The Supreme Court, however, has shown that it is just as firmly entrenched today as it was in 1495." Rollin M. Perkins & Ronald N. Boyce, Criminal Lace 880 (3d ed. 1982).
malum prohibitum
n. [Latin "prohibited evil"] An act that is a crime merely because it is prohibited by statute, although the act itself is not necessarily immoral. ( Misdemeanors such as jaywalking and running a stoplight are males prohibita, as are many regulatory violations. Pl. males prohibits. - malum prohibitum, adj. Cf. MALUM IN SE. Much of the criminal law that is regulatory in character - the part of it that deals with malum prohibitum rather than malum in se - is based upon the ... principle that the choice of the individual must give way to the convenience of the many." Patrick Devlin, The Enforcement of Morals 16 (1968). "As customarily used these phrases are mutually exclusive. An offense malum prohibitum is not a wrong which is prohibited, but something which is wrong only in the sense that it is against the law. This is emphasized at times by such phrases as 'malum prohibitum only' or 'but malum prohibitum,' although it is understood without any such qualification. A failure to understand this usage of the terms has led some to assume that all statutory additions to the common law of crimes are mala prohibita. One writer emphasized his confusion by speaking of embezzlement as malum prohibitum. This assumption is utterly without foundation. An act may be malum in se although no punishment is provided by law. If this defect is corrected by appropriate legislation, what previously was malum in se does not cease to be so by reason of having been defined and made punishable by law." Rollin M. Perkins & Ronald N. Boyce, Criminal Law 884-85 (3d ed. -1982).