Legal Dictionary of Pakistan
Quick lookup for English, Urdu, and Latin legal terms used in Pakistani jurisprudence.
Obscene
, adj. Extremely offensive under contemporary community standards of morality and decency; grossly repugnant to the generally accepted notions of what is appropriate. ( Under the Supreme Court's three-part test, material is legally obscene - and therefore not protected under the First Amendment - if, taken as a whole, the material (1) appeals to the prurient interest in sex, as determined by the average person applying contemporary community standards; (2) portrays sexual conduct, as specifically defined by the applicable state law, in a patently offensive way; and (3) lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value. Miller u. California, 413 U.S. 15, 93 S.Ct. 2607 (1973)."If there be no abstract definition, ... should not the word 'obscene' be allowed to indicate the present critical point in the compromise between candor and shame at which the community may have arrived here and now?" United States u. Kennerley, 209 F. 119, 121 (S.D.N.Y. 1913) (per Hand, J.).
obscene libel
Hist. 1. The common-law crime of publishing, with the intent to corrupt, material (esp. sexual words or pictures) that tends to deprave or corrupt those whose minds are open to immoral influences. 2. A writing, book, picture, or print that is so obscene that it shocks the public sense of decency.