Mandatory Death as a Punishment

A. Overview

It is well known that punishment is a consequence for a person who commits a crime.

1. What is a crime?

Plato said: “A crime may be illegal or immoral or both. In either case, the crime is committed in disobedience to a known set of rules.”
As for practices of the States, the rules  for crimes are well entrenched in its criminal codes. These rules are decided by the legislator for which acts are criminal before proceeding upon a general justification for punishment for those acts.

2. Must certain crimes be necessarily followed by mandatory death sentence?

Hart viewed that in order to find a satisfactory explanation for the above, there is a need to answer some different questions.

a. What justifies the practice of punishment – mandatory death?
b. To whom may the punishment be applied?
c. How severely may we punish?
d. Further, to consider the punishment is distributive (the man is singled out for punishment) and general justifying aim (the aims to punish him in such a way).

(more…)

For those in the legal fraternity, the question of whether a legal wrong has been committed in various situations predominantly occupies their concentration. This holds true, even purely in the civil context. When confronted with a problem, the question that immediately blazes in their mind is this: “Is there a breach of tortious duty or a breach of contract here?”

(more…)

Human rights. Fundamental rights. Natural rights. Such are common parlances describing ‘rights’. Legal minds passionately talk about it, and fight for it. It is our bread and butter. It is our sword and shield.And yet, and yet, everyday, we find this so-called ‘rights’ supposedly inherent in all human beings being ignored, violated and trampled upon. Everyday, people are detained without trial. Everyday, people are persecuted for their religious beliefs and their less-than-normal sexual orientation. Everyday, people are stifled from speaking their thoughts. Everyday, people are suffering in their pursuit of their own happiness while pretty much minding their own business.

(more…)

In this millennium globalization era, trade competitions between countries are getting stiffer and inevitably Malaysia is susceptible to such commercial fray, e.g. in banking arena. Any right-thinking man, particularly businessman, setting foot in the bank would have expected the bank to provide the best services, inter alia, to keep all their personal information confidential. As such, duty of secrecy is one of the salient duties undertaken by the banker towards its customers.

(more…)