CRIMINAL LAW DEFINITION OF TERMS
1. CRIMINAL LAW- is that branch or division of law which defines crimes, treats of their nature, and provides for their punishment.
2. CRIME- crime is defined as an act committed or omitted in violation of public law forbidding or commanding it.
3. GENERAL (characteristic of criminal law) - general, in that criminal law is binding on all persons who live or sojourn in Philippine territory.
4. TERRITORIAL (characteristic of criminal law) - in that criminal law undertakes to punish crimes committee within Philippine territory.
5. PROSPECTIVE-(characteristic of criminal law)- in that a penal law cannot make an act punishable in a manner in which it was not punishable when committed.
6. FRENCH RULE- such crimes are not triable in courts of that country, unless their commission affects the peace and security of the territory or the safety of the state is endangered.
7. ENGLISH RULE-such crimes are triable in that country, unless they merely affect things within the vessel or they refer to the internal management thereof.
8. FELONIES- felonies are acts and omissions punishable by the revised penal code.
9. ACT- any bodily movement tending to produce some effect in the external world.
10. OMISSION- is meant inaction, the failure to perform a positive duty which one is bound to do.
11. MISTAKE OF FACT- is a misapprehension of fact on the part of the person who caused injury to another.
12. MALA IN SE- wrongful from their nature, those so serious in their effects on society as to call for the almost unanimous condemnation of its members and defined and penalized by the Revised Penal Code.
13. MALA PROHIBITA- wrong merely because prohibited by statute, are violations of mere rules of convenience designed to secure a more orderly regulation of the affairs of society. The term mala prohibita refers generally to acts made criminal by special laws.
14. INTENT- intent is the purpose to use a particular means to effect such result.
15. MOTIVE- motive is the moving power which impels one to action for a definite result.
16. CONSUMMATED FELONY- a felony is consummated when all the elements necessary for its execution and accomplishment are present.
17. FRUSTRATED FELONY- when the offender performs all the acts of execution which would produce the felony as a consequence but which nevertheless, do not produce it by reason of causes independent of the will of the perpetrator.
18. ATTEMPTED FELONY- when the offender commences the commission of a felony directly by overt acts, and does not perform all the acts of execution which should produce the felony by reason of some cause or accident other than his own spontaneous desistance.
19. OVERT ACTS- an overt act is some physical activity or deed, indicating the intention to commit a particular crime, more than a mere planning or preparation, which if carried to its complete termination following its natural course, without being frustrated by external obstacles nor by the voluntary desistance of the perpetrator, will logically and necessarily ripen into a concrete offense.
20. INDETERMINATE OFFENSE- one where purpose of offender in the performing an act is not certain. Its nature in relation to its objective is ambiguous.
21. CONSPIRACY- conspiracy exists when two or more persons come to an agreement concerning the commission of a felony and decide to commit it.
22. PROPOSAL- there is a proposal when the person who has decided to commit a felony proposes its execution to some other person or persons.
