Dictionary Search: "penal" - Pakistan Law Portal

Code penal

The fourth of five codes promoted by Napoleon, enacted in 1810, setting forth the penal code of France. See NAPOLEONIC CODE.

Model Penal Code test.

See SUBSTANTIAL-CAPACITY TEST.

Model Penal Code.

A proposed criminal code drafted by the American Law Institute and used as the basis for criminal-law revision by many states. - Abbr. MPC."The maxim rnobilia sequuntur personam is the exception rather than the rule, and is probably to be confined to certain special classes of general assignments such as marriage settlements and devolutions on death and bankruptcy." Handel a. Slatford, 1953 Q.B. 248, 257 (Eng. C.A.)."Under the influence of Savigny many Continental systems in the mid-nineteenth century led the way for Anglo-American law in limiting the operation of the doctrine of mobilia sequuntur personam to universal assignments of movables, adopting for particular assignments the single principle of the lex situs of the movable." R.H. Graveson, Conflict of Laws 457 (7th ed. 1974).

Penalty

1. Punishment imposed on a wrongdoer, esp. in the form of imprisonment or fine. ( Though usu. for crimes, penalties are also sometimes imposed for civil wrongs. 2. Excessive liquidated damages that a contract purports to impose on a party that breaches. ( If the damages are excessive enough to be considered a penalty, a court will usu. not enforce that particular provision of the contract. Some contracts specify that a given sum of damages is intended "as liquidated damages and not as a penalty" - but even that language is not foolproof. "A penalty is a sum which a party . . . agrees to pay or forfeit in the event of a breach, but which is fixed, not as a pre-estimate of probable actual damages, but as a punishment, the threat of which is designed to prevent the breach, or as security, where the sum is deposited or the covenant to pay is joined in by one or more sureties, to insure that the person injured shall collect his actual damages. Penalties are not recoverable or retainable as such by the person in whose favor they are framed

bill of pains and penalties.

A legislative act that, though similar to a bill of attainder, prescribes punishment less severe than capital punishment. o Bills of pains and penalties are included within the U.S. Constitution's ban of bills of attainder. U.S. Const. art I, § 9.

bill penal.

A written promise to pay that carries a penalty in excess of the underlying debt for failure to pay. Cf. bill single.

civil penalty

A fine assessed for a violation of a statute or regulation <the EPA levied a civil penalty of $10,000 on the manufacturer for exceeding its pollution limits>.

death penalty

1 State-imposed death as punishment for a serious crime. - Also termed capital punishment. 2. A penalty that makes a person or entity ineligible to participate in an activity that the person or entity previously participated in. ( The penalty is usu. imposed because of some type of gross misconduct.

death penalty sanction. Civil procedure.

A court's order dismissing the suit or entering a default judgment in favor of the plaintiff because of extreme discovery abuses by a party or because of a party's action or inaction that shows an unwillingness to participate in the case. ( Such a sanction is rarely ordered, and is usu. preceded by orders of lesser sanctions that have not been complied with or that have not remedied the problem.

death-penalty sanction

See SANCTION.

declaration under penalty of perjury

See DECLARATION (8).

mandatory penalty

See mandatory sentence under SENTENCE.

pains and penalties, bill of

See BILL OF PAINS AND PENALTIES.

penal

adj. Of, relating to, or being a penalty or punishment, esp. for a crime. "The general rule is that penal statutes are to be construed strictly. By the word penal' in this connection is meant not only such statutes as in terms impose a fine, or corporal punishment, or forfeiture as a consequence of violating laws, but also all acts which impose by way of punishment damages beyond compensation for the benefit of the injured party, or which impose any special burden, or take away or impair any privilege or right." William M. Lile et al., Brief Making and the Use of Laiv Books 344 (3d ed. 1914). "The word penal connotes some form of punishment imposed on an individual by the authority of the state. Where the primary purpose of a statute is expressly enforceable by fine, imprisonment, or similar punishment the statute is always construed as penal." 3 Norman J. Singer, Sutherland Statutes and Statutory Construction § 59.01, at 1 (4th ed. 1986).

penal action

See ACTION.

penal action.

A criminal prosecution. 2. A civil proceeding in which either the state or a common informer sues a defendant who has violated a statute and seeks to recover a penalty. 0 Although civil in nature, a penal action resembles a criminal proceeding because the result of a successful action is a monetary penalty intended, like a fine, to punish the defendant. See COMMON INFORMER."At one time it was a frequent practice, when it was desired to repress some type of conduct thought to be harmful, to do so by the machinery of the civil rather than of the criminal law. The means so chosen was called a penal action, as being brought for the recovery of a penalty; and it might be brought, according to the wording of the particular statute creating the penal action, either by the Attorney-General on behalf of the state, or by a common informer on his own account. A common informer was anyone who should first sue the offender for the penalty. Penal actions are still possible in a few cases, and their existence renders invalid several suggested distinctions between civil wrongs and crimes." John Salmond, Jurisprudence 107 (Glanville L. Williams ed., 10th ed. 1947)."For in 'penal actions', unless the statute expressly authorizes private persons to act as informers, the State alone can sue and recover the penalty; and yet there is full authority for ranking such suits by it as merely civil proceedings." J.W. Cecil Turner, Kenny's Outlines of Criminal Law 538 (16th ed. 1952).3. A civil lawsuit by an aggrieved party seeking recovery of a statutory fine or a penalty, such as punitive damages."[T]here exists a well-known class of proceedings called 'penal actions', by which pecuniary penalties can be recovered - in some cases by any person who will sue for them - from the doers of various prohibited acts; these acts being thus prohibited, and visited with penalties, solely on account of their tendency to cause evil to the community at large, 'considered as a community.' For example, a person who, in advertising a reward for the return of lost property, adds that 'no questions will be asked' incurs by the Larceny Act, 1861, a penalty of f50 recoverable by anyone who will sue for it." J.W. Cecil Turner, Kenny's Outlines of Criminal Law 533-34 (16th ed. 1952).

penal bill

See penal bond under BOND (2).

penal bond

See BOND (2).

penal bond.

A bond requiring the obligor to pay a specified sum as a penalty if the underlying obligation is not performed. - Also termed penal bill; common-defeasance bond.

penal clause

See PENALTY CLAUSE.

penal code

A compilation of criminal laws, usu. defining and categorizing the offenses and setting forth their respective punishments. - Also termed criminal code. See MODEL PENAL CODE.

penal custody

Custody intended to punish a criminal offender.

penal institution

See PRISON.

penal law

1. See penal statute under STATUTE. 2. CRIMINAL LAW.

penal liability

Liability arising from a proceeding intended at least partly to penalize a wrongdoer. Cf. remedial liability.

penal redress

See REDRESS.

penal sanction

See criminal sanction under SANCTION.

penal statute

A law that defines an offense and prescribes its corresponding fine, penalty, or punishment. - Also termed penal law; punitive statute.

penal sum

The monetary amount specified as a penalty in a penal bond. See penal bond under BOND (2).

penalty clause

A contractual provision that assesses an excessive monetary charge against a defaulting party. ( Penalty clauses are generally unenforceable. - Often shortened to penalty. - Also termed penal clause. Cf. LIQUIDATED-DAMAGES CLAUSE; LIMITATION-OF-REMEDIES CLAUSE. "It not infrequently happens that contracts provide for what is to happen in the event of a breach by the parties, or by one of them. Such provisions may be perfectly simple attempts to avoid future disputes, and to quantify the probable amount of any loss. That is unobjectionable. But sometimes clauses of this kind are not designed to quantify the amount of the probable loss, but are designed to terrorize, or frighten, the party into performance. For example, a contract may provide that the promisor is to pay £5 on a certain event, but if he fails to do so, he must then pay £500. Now a clause of that kind is called a penalty clause by lawyers, and for several hundred years it has been the law that such promises cannot be enforced. The standard justification for the law here is that it is unfair and unconscionable to enforce clauses which are designed to act in terrorem." P.S. Atiyah, Promises, Morals, and Law 57-58 (1981).

prepayment penalty

A charge assessed against a borrower who elects to pay off a loan before it is due.

statutory penalty

A penalty imposed for a statutory violation; esp., a penalty imposing automatic liability on a wrongdoer for violation of a statute's terms without reference to any actual damages suffered.

unsworn declaration under penalty of perjury