Criminal Law and Procedure
What this domain tests
The Muluki Criminal Code 2074 and the Muluki Criminal Procedure Code 2074 supply this domain: the elements of offences, the available defences, and the process from first information to judgment.
Core rules
- Legality: no punishment without a law in force when the act was committed.
- Elements: a prohibited act plus the mental state the definition demands - intentionally, knowingly, rashly or negligently - and causation where a result is required.
- Participation: attempt, abetment, conspiracy, common intention and joint liability extend responsibility beyond the physical actor.
- Defences: infancy, unsoundness of mind, private defence, necessity, mistake of fact, involuntary intoxication.
- Process: first information report, investigation, arrest on recorded grounds, production before a court within 24 hours, remand, bail, charge sheet by the government attorney, trial, judgment.
Worked example
A and B agree to steal from a shop; B keeps watch outside while A removes the goods. B is liable for theft on common intention although she never touched the property. The court then individualises sentence by role, recovery and antecedents. Had B clearly withdrawn before the act and told A so, the common intention link would break and only A would be liable.
Traps that cost marks
Treating a confessional statement to police as proof of guilt; assuming the 24-hour production rule lapses during investigation; confusing compounding (milan) with withdrawal of prosecution; ignoring the juvenile justice regime for offenders below 18; forgetting that the prosecution carries the burden throughout.