Criminal Law

2017 Penal Code displaced by hudud and qisas punishments

The 2017 Penal Code, which had consolidated Afghan criminal law and excluded corporal punishment, is no longer the operative instrument. Judges apply hudud and qisas penalties including flogging and execution.

Public floggings and executions have resumed and been officially confirmed. Defence-counsel access is limited, the licensed bar was dissolved, and there is no functioning appellate review comparable to the pre-2021 system. Reliable reporting of charges and sentences is scarce.

The Criminal Code with SPAK and dedicated anti-corruption courts

The Criminal Code and Code of Criminal Procedure govern offences and process. The justice reform created SPAK, a special prosecution structure, and specialised courts for corruption and organised crime.

Non-conviction-based confiscation of unexplained assets is a distinctive and heavily used tool in Albanian anti-corruption practice.

A 1966 penal code with broad security offences and a de facto death penalty moratorium

The Penal Code of 1966 and the Criminal Procedure Code follow French structure. No execution has been carried out since 1993, and 2021 amendments broadened terrorism definitions considerably.

Ordinance 21-08 is the most consequential recent change: it widened the statutory definition of a terrorist act to include acts aimed at changing the system of government by non-constitutional means or harming state institutions, and created a national list of terrorist persons and entities with administrative listing effects. Its breadth has drawn criticism because conduct associated with protest can fall within it. Article 87 bis and the 2020 false-news provisions have both been used in speech cases. The death penalty remains in the code for many offences but has not been carried out since 1993. Pre-trial detention is available for extended renewable periods in serious cases, and access to counsel during initial custody remains narrower than in Morocco or Tunisia.

The 2005 Criminal Code with the Batllia as investigating court

Criminal law rests on the 2005 Codi penal and the Codi de procediment penal. The Batllia investigates and tries lesser offences, while the Tribunal de Corts hears serious cases and the Tribunal Superior hears appeals.

Judges and prosecutors are frequently recruited from Spain and France, so cross-border judicial cooperation is routine in practice.

Código Penal 2020 replacing the 1886 Portuguese code

The Código Penal (Lei 38/20) came into force in 2021, replacing the Portuguese code of 1886 — one of the oldest criminal codes still in force anywhere until then. It decriminalised same-sex sexual conduct, criminalised discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation, and modernised sentencing. The death penalty was abolished in 1992.

Replacing an 1886 code in 2020 was a generational reform: until then Angolan criminal law was administered from a nineteenth-century Portuguese text, and the new Code's decriminalisation provisions made Angola one of the more protective jurisdictions on the continent on sexual-orientation grounds.

Offences Against the Person Act with abolition of the death penalty in practice

Criminal law rests on the Offences Against the Person Act, the Larceny Act and the Misuse of Drugs Act, with the Criminal Procedure Act governing trial. Indictable matters are tried in the High Court before a jury, and summary matters before a magistrate. Prosecutions are brought by the Director of Public Prosecutions, whose independence is constitutionally protected.

The death penalty remains on the statute book for murder but has not been carried out since 1991, and the Privy Council jurisprudence on delay and on mandatory sentences applies directly because Antigua and Barbuda retained that final appeal. Money laundering and proceeds of crime enforcement are unusually prominent given the size of the offshore financial sector, and restraint orders frequently accompany fraud prosecutions.

Transition from written inquisitorial to federal adversarial procedure

The Código Penal governs offences nationally, but procedure is being transformed: Ley 27.063 enacted a new accusatorial Código Procesal Penal Federal that is being rolled out district by district, replacing the older written inquisitorial model. Under the new code prosecutors drive investigation, hearings are oral and public, and plea and diversion mechanisms are available.

Because the adversarial federal code is being implemented progressively by jurisdiction, the applicable procedure depends on where the case is heard, and the provinces separately run their own procedural codes — several of which adopted oral adversarial procedure long before the federal system did. Trial by jury operates for serious offences in a number of provinces including Buenos Aires, Córdoba and Neuquén.

A new Criminal Code and Criminal Procedure Code in force since 2022

Armenia replaced its 2003 Criminal Code with a wholly new code that entered into force on 1 July 2022, alongside a new Criminal Procedure Code. The reform restructured sentencing and expanded alternatives to imprisonment.

The 2022 codes were drafted with Council of Europe input and are intended to align Armenian criminal justice with Convention standards. The death penalty was abolished in 2003 on accession to the Council of Europe; life imprisonment is the maximum sentence. Pre-trial detention is subject to judicial authorisation and defined maximum periods. The Investigative Committee and the Anti-Corruption Committee conduct investigations under prosecutorial supervision. The new procedure code strengthened defence access to case materials and restructured the appeal of interlocutory decisions.

State codes and common law plus a Commonwealth Criminal Code

Predominantly state and territory criminal law, split between code jurisdictions and common-law jurisdictions, with a separate Commonwealth Criminal Code for federal offences. There is no single national criminal law.

Which criminal law applies depends on the state, and the differences are substantive rather than cosmetic — the availability and formulation of defences such as provocation and self-defence vary, as do sentencing regimes and the age of criminal responsibility. Commonwealth offences (terrorism, drug importation, fraud against the Commonwealth, cybercrime) are prosecuted by the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions in state courts exercising federal jurisdiction. Trial by jury is constitutionally guaranteed for indictable Commonwealth offences by s. 80 of the Constitution, but not for state offences, where statute governs.

Prosecutor-led investigation, with lay judges and juries for serious cases

The Code of Criminal Procedure (StPO) puts the public prosecutor in charge of the investigation, assisted by the criminal police and supervised by a court on coercive measures. Austria retains lay participation: lay assessors (Schöffen) sit for mid-level offences and a jury (Geschworene) decides the most serious crimes.

Diversion is a significant feature, letting first-time and minor offenders avoid a criminal record. Jury trials, though limited to the gravest offences, remain a distinctive part of the Austrian system.

The 2000 Criminal Code with life imprisonment as the maximum penalty

The Criminal Code entered into force in September 2000, replacing the Soviet-era code. The death penalty was abolished in 1998, making Azerbaijan the first state in the region to do so, and life imprisonment is now the most severe sanction.

The Code follows the continental structure of a general part on liability and sentencing and a special part defining offences. Investigations are conducted by the police, the State Security Service and the Prosecutor's Office depending on the offence, with judicial authorisation required for detention and searches. Serious offences are tried at first instance in the Grave Crimes Courts rather than district courts. Pre-trial detention periods are capped by the procedure code, though extensions are available for particularly complex investigations.

A 1976 penal code with a broad state security overlay

The Penal Code of 1976 codifies offences. Counter-terrorism legislation from 2006 onwards adds broadly drafted security offences.

The 2017 amendment permitting military trial of civilians for terrorism offences is the single most consequential change in Bahraini criminal justice and is frequently omitted. The 2006 terrorism law is drafted broadly enough to capture protest and association, and it has been the principal instrument in the prosecutions following 2011. Alcohol is licensed and available, unlike Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. The Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry report of 2011 remains the authoritative account of the events of that year and its recommendations are the benchmark against which subsequent reform is usually measured.

1860 Penal Code plus contested special statutes

The colonial-era Penal Code and 1898 Criminal Procedure Code remain the core. Special laws — the Digital Security Act and its 2023 replacement, and the Special Powers Act — have drawn sustained criticism for speech prosecutions.

Bail is discretionary for most offences but excluded for several special-law charges, which is why pre-trial detention is long. Confessions must be recorded by a magistrate to be admissible. The International Crimes Tribunal, constituted for 1971 offences, operates under its own 1973 statute with distinct procedure. Capital punishment is retained and carried out.

Offences Against the Person Act with the mandatory death penalty struck down

Substantive offences are set out in the Offences Against the Person Act, Cap. 141 and related statutes, with procedure in the Criminal Procedure Act. Following the CCJ's decision in Nervais and Severin v The Queen in 2018, the mandatory death sentence for murder was held unconstitutional, and sentencing for murder is now discretionary. The Director of Public Prosecutions conducts prosecutions.

Nervais is the clearest illustration of what accepting CCJ appellate jurisdiction changed: the Court reasoned that the savings clause could not preserve a mandatory sentence that denied any individualised consideration, a conclusion that diverged from earlier Privy Council orthodoxy in the region. Sentencing practice in murder cases now requires a full mitigation exercise that was previously irrelevant.

A 1999 criminal code with the death penalty retained

The Criminal Code of 1999 applies with a procedure code of the same year. Belarus is the only European state still executing, by shooting and without notice to the family, and the 2022 amendments extended capital liability to attempted acts of terrorism.

Because remand is authorised by a prosecutor and not a court, habeas-style review is limited, and the practical protection is documenting the detention time and demanding counsel at the first interview.

The 1867 Penal Code is being replaced by a new code in 2026

Belgian criminal law rests on the Penal Code of 1867 and the Code of Criminal Procedure of 1808, both of Napoleonic lineage. A wholly new Penal Code was adopted in 2024 and enters into force on 1 September 2026, restructuring offences and replacing the historic penalty categories with a graded scale of penalty levels.

Because the new code applies only to conduct after 1 September 2026, both regimes will run in parallel for years and the date of the offence decides which applies. A victim can join the criminal case as a partie civile to claim damages, avoiding a separate civil action.

Common-law criminal procedure, with jury trial narrowed for murder

Criminal law rests on the Criminal Code and the Indictable Procedure Act against a common-law background. Belize abolished jury trial for murder in 2011 in response to witness intimidation, so murder is now tried by judge alone, a significant departure from Caribbean practice.

Bail restrictions for firearm offences are the dominant practical issue, and applications often go to the Supreme Court. Legal aid is limited, and the Belize Bar Association coordinates pro bono representation in capital and serious cases.

Code pénal 2018 and a Cour de répression des infractions économiques

Loi n° 2018-16 replaced the colonial-era penal code. Benin abolished the death penalty in 2012 by acceding to the Second Optional Protocol to the ICCPR. A specialised court, CRIET, handles economic crime and terrorism and has been criticised for its use against political figures.

CRIET is the contested institution in Benin's criminal justice system. Created in 2018 with jurisdiction over economic offences and terrorism, and initially without an appellate chamber, it has tried opposition figures and drawn findings against Benin from the ECOWAS Court of Justice. An appeal chamber was added in 2020 in response.

2004 Penal Code with no death penalty

The Penal Code of Bhutan 2004 codified offences and grades them by value and seriousness. Capital punishment was abolished in 2004, and the Civil and Criminal Procedure Code governs process.

Offences are classified from petty misdemeanour up to felony of the first degree, with sentencing bands attached. Tobacco sale was criminalised for years and then liberalised in 2021, a good illustration of how quickly Bhutanese statute can move. Homosexual conduct was decriminalised in 2021. Defendants have a right to counsel, and jabmi (legal representatives) appear in court under the Jabmi Act.

Código Penal with oral procedure and high pre-trial detention

The Código Penal and the Código de Procedimiento Penal (Ley 1970) provide an accusatorial oral process led by the Ministerio Público. Bolivia has one of the region's highest proportions of pre-trial detainees, and successive reforms including Ley 1173 sought to speed hearings and limit detención preventiva. Indigenous jurisdiction handles defined community matters.

Ley 1173 introduced measures including expedited hearings, electronic notification and stricter justification for preventive detention, precisely because prolonged pre-trial custody had become the system's defining problem. The interface with indigenous jurisdiction is governed by Ley 073, which excludes serious offences from community adjudication while requiring the state courts to respect community decisions within their sphere.

Four parallel criminal codes with a state court for the gravest cases

Criminal law exists at state, entity and Brčko District level, giving four criminal codes and four procedure codes. The Court of BiH and the Prosecutor's Office of BiH handle war crimes, organised crime, terrorism and corruption.

Determining which of the four codes applies, and whether the more lenient law applies retroactively, is a recurring threshold question.

Penal Code offences, retained capital punishment and customary courts for minor matters

The Penal Code is the principal source of offences. Botswana retains and carries out the death penalty for murder without extenuating circumstances, one of the few African states still executing. Customary courts try minor offences with limited sentencing powers, and there is no jury — trial is by judge.

Criminal procedure is English in form — adversarial, judge-alone — while the substantive Penal Code is a colonial-era codification since amended. The retention of executions distinguishes Botswana from Namibia, South Africa and Zambia, all of which have abolished or ceased the practice.

1940 Código Penal with the 2019 Pacote Anticrime reforms

The Código Penal of 1940 and the Código de Processo Penal of 1941 remain the core statutes, heavily amended since. Lei 13.964/2019, the Pacote Anticrime, introduced the juiz das garantias to separate the judge who supervises the investigation from the judge who tries the case, and put the plea-style acordo de não persecução penal on a statutory footing. Custody hearings within 24 hours of arrest are mandatory.

Most prosecutions are brought by the Ministério Público, which holds a near-monopoly on public criminal action, and are tried in state courts; federal courts take offences against federal assets, interstate drug trafficking and crimes with an international dimension. The acordo de não persecução penal allows the prosecutor to agree conditions without a conviction where the offence carries a minimum sentence below four years and no violence was used.

A Penal Code and a Sharia Penal Code operating in parallel

Brunei applies an English-derived Penal Code alongside the Syariah Penal Code Order 2013, whose phases were fully brought into force in 2019. The Sharia code provides hudud punishments including stoning and amputation for certain offences and applies to Muslims and, for some offences, to non-Muslims. A moratorium on the death penalty has been stated to continue, but the provisions remain law.

The Penal Code (Cap. 22) governs ordinary criminal offences on English lines. The Syariah Penal Code Order 2013 applies in parallel, with Syariah Courts exercising jurisdiction. Some Sharia offences apply to non-Muslims, including offences relating to khalwat and to propagating other religions to Muslims. Criminal appeals end at the Court of Appeal; the Privy Council has no criminal jurisdiction here. Determining which code governs a given act is the first and most consequential question — the two carry entirely different penalties. Alcohol is prohibited for Muslims and its import by non-Muslims is tightly limited and must be declared.

A 1968 penal code with a 24-hour police detention limit

The Penal Code of 1968 remains in force with heavy amendment, and the 2006 Code of Criminal Procedure governs process. Police may detain for 24 hours, and any longer deprivation requires a court order on the prosecutor's request.

The accusatory monopoly of the prosecution means a victim cannot force a prosecution, and the ECtHR's Kolevi line of cases is what drove the 2023 mechanism for investigating the Prosecutor General.

Code pénal 2018 with terrorism offences and de facto abolition of the death penalty

Loi n° 025-2018 recodified criminal law and removed the death penalty from the ordinary Code. Anti-terrorism provisions have expanded substantially in response to the insurgency in the Sahel, including specialised investigation units and extended detention.

The 2018 Code abolished the death penalty in ordinary criminal law, but the operative development in Burkinabè criminal justice is the anti-terrorism regime layered on top of it. Large parts of the national territory are outside effective state control, and courts in affected regions have relocated, so the gap between the Code as written and criminal justice as administered is wide.

The 2017 Penal Code, with abolished capital punishment

The Penal Code of 2017 replaced the 2009 code, which had abolished the death penalty. The 2009 code also criminalised same-sex relations for the first time, a provision retained in 2017, and the Criminal Procedure Code was revised in 2018.

The 2009 abolition of the death penalty was a genuine reform, but the same statute introduced criminal liability for same-sex conduct, which had not previously been an offence in Burundi — a reminder that recodification bundles liberalising and restricting changes together.

A 2009 Penal Code, with the ECCC legacy alongside it

The Penal Code of 2009 and the Code of Criminal Procedure of 2007 replaced the transitional UNTAC-era provisions. Separately, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia tried senior Khmer Rouge figures under a hybrid domestic-international mandate; its jurisprudence on genocide and crimes against humanity is part of Cambodia's legal record even though the chambers have concluded trials.

The Penal Code 2009 is the general criminal statute; there is no death penalty. Investigating judges conduct pre-trial investigation in the French tradition. Pre-trial detention limits are set by the Code of Criminal Procedure and are frequently litigated. The ECCC operated as a hybrid chamber with both Cambodian and international judges. The death penalty was abolished by the 1993 Constitution — a distinguishing feature in the region. Defamation and incitement provisions are used in practice against speech, so advice on expression should address criminal as well as civil exposure.

A unified 2016 Penal Code over two procedural traditions

The Penal Code was recodified in 2016, replacing the 1967 text, and applies nationwide. The Criminal Procedure Code of 2005 was itself an attempt to fuse anglophone and francophone procedure into a single instrument, and it introduced habeas corpus alongside the civil-law instruction.

The 2005 Criminal Procedure Code is the clearest example of Cameroonian bijuralism attempting synthesis rather than parallel operation: it retained the investigating magistrate from French procedure while importing habeas corpus and a stronger adversarial trial from the common law. The 2014 anti-terrorism law is the most criticised departure, because it routes civilians to military jurisdiction.

One federal Criminal Code, prosecuted mostly by the provinces

Criminal law is exclusively federal, so the Criminal Code applies identically across the country — an unusual feature for a federation, and the opposite of the United States. Administration of justice is provincial, so provincial Crown attorneys conduct most prosecutions while the Public Prosecution Service of Canada handles drug, terrorism and regulatory offences. Charter sections 7 to 14 supply the procedural protections.

R v Jordan turned the section 11(b) right to trial within a reasonable time into presumptive numerical ceilings, and a breach means a stay of proceedings rather than a lesser remedy, which has reshaped how Crown offices manage their dockets. An accused facing five years or more has a constitutional right to a jury under section 11(f), and for most indictable offences may elect trial by judge alone, judge and jury, or provincial court.

Código Penal 2003 with the death penalty abolished since 1981

The Código Penal of 2003, Portuguese in structure, governs. Cabo Verde abolished the death penalty in 1981, among the earliest in Africa. Narcotics transit across the Atlantic is the principal enforcement challenge.

Abolition of capital punishment in 1981 placed Cabo Verde decades ahead of most of the continent, and the criminal justice system operates with functioning defence rights and low violent crime by regional standards. Its mid-Atlantic position makes it a transit point for cocaine, and maritime interdiction cooperation with European navies is the main international dimension of its criminal law.

A 2010 Penal Code alongside the Special Criminal Court

The Penal Code of 2010 governs ordinary offences. Grave international crimes committed since 2003 fall to the Special Criminal Court, a hybrid national court with international personnel, while the ICC has also exercised jurisdiction over CAR situations.

The Special Criminal Court is the defining feature of Central African criminal law. It sits within the national system but includes international judges and prosecutors, and its creation in 2015 was an explicit response to the incapacity of the ordinary courts to try conflict-related crimes.

The 2017 Penal Code, which abolished the death penalty for ordinary crimes

The Penal Code of 2017 replaced the 1967 text, abolishing capital punishment for ordinary offences while initially retaining it for terrorism, which was removed in 2020. It also criminalised child marriage and female genital mutilation.

The 2017 recodification and the 2020 amendment together made Chad fully abolitionist in law, a notable position in the Sahel, while the same code introduced offences against child marriage that reflect the country's very high historic rate of early marriage.

Fully adversarial procedure since the 2000-2005 reform

Chile completed one of the region's most thorough criminal-procedure reforms, replacing written inquisitorial process with oral adversarial trials through the Código Procesal Penal, rolled out regionally between 2000 and 2005. The Ministerio Público investigates, guarantee judges supervise pre-trial rights, and oral trial courts decide. A public defender service was created alongside.

The separation of functions is the defining feature: the juez de garantía protects rights during investigation but does not try the case, and a different tribunal de juicio oral en lo penal hears the evidence afresh at trial. The reform is often cited as a regional model precisely because it was accompanied by new institutions — prosecution service, public defence and reorganised courts — rather than a code change alone.

Prosecutorial approval of arrest, and a wide capital-offence list

The Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure Law govern. Formal arrest requires procuratorate approval, and the death penalty remains available for a broad range of offences including non-violent economic crimes.

The 2018 amendment added a plea-leniency system that now resolves a large share of prosecutions. Residential surveillance at a designated location permits detention away from home and, for endangering-national-security cases, delayed access to counsel. Conviction rates are extremely high, so the practical contest is usually over sentence rather than guilt. All death sentences require review and approval by the Supreme People's Court.

Adversarial procedure under Ley 906 with transitional justice via the JEP

Ley 906/2004 introduced an accusatorial system with oral hearings, a prosecuting Fiscalía and control-of-guarantees judges. Separately, the 2016 peace agreement created the Jurisdicción Especial para la Paz (JEP), a transitional-justice jurisdiction with its own procedures for conflict-related crimes, offering reduced sanctions in exchange for truth and reparation.

The coexistence of ordinary criminal justice with the JEP is the distinctive feature: the JEP has priority over conflict-related conduct by former combatants and state agents, applies restorative sanctions, and its jurisdiction displaces the ordinary courts for those cases. The 36-hour rule for judicial control of detention is a constitutional guarantee in Article 28.

A French-derived penal code with Islamic elements in personal matters

The Penal Code derives from French law as received and amended, and applies to all criminal matters. Islamic law is applied in personal status rather than criminal law, though qadi courts historically exercised wider jurisdiction.

Comorian criminal law is French in form, but the qadis remain part of the judicial structure and the boundary between their personal-status jurisdiction and the ordinary criminal courts is the practical question that recurs, particularly in family violence cases.

Accusatorial process with strong pre-trial protections

The Criminal Procedure Code of 1996 established an accusatorial oral system led by the Ministerio Público. Costa Rica abolished the death penalty in 1877 and has no life sentence; the maximum term is 50 years.

Foreign nationals are entitled to consular notification and an interpreter at state expense. The OIJ, not the executive police, conducts serious-crime investigations.

The 2011 Criminal Code with prosecutor-led investigation and plea agreements

The Criminal Code of 2011 and the Criminal Procedure Act govern offences and process. Investigations are directed by the State Attorney, with USKOK handling corruption and organised crime, and negotiated sentences are available.

Legal persons have separate criminal liability under a dedicated statute, distinct from the Criminal Code itself.

Código Penal Ley 151/2022 in force since December 2022

Ley 151/2022 replaced the 1987 Penal Code, entering into force on 1 December 2022, and was accompanied by Ley 143/2021 on criminal procedure. The new code retains the death penalty for the gravest offences, though no execution has been carried out since 2003, and it retains broadly framed offences against state security that attract sustained international criticism. Prosecutions are conducted by the Fiscalía General de la República.

The 2021 procedural law introduced clearer time limits and a defined role for defence counsel from the outset of detention, which on paper strengthens the position of the accused compared with the previous regime. In practice the breadth of the state-security offences, and their use following the July 2021 protests, is the feature most commonly raised by international observers.

A codified Criminal Code of colonial origin, EU-aligned since 2004

The Criminal Code, Cap. 154, derives from the colonial-era code and remains the principal source of substantive criminal law, supplemented extensively by EU-driven legislation. The Criminal Procedure Law, Cap. 155, governs process, and trial is by judge without a jury.

Cyprus has no jury trial: serious offences are tried by an Assize Court of three judges, and lesser offences by a single district judge. The Criminal Code retains its colonial structure and drafting style, which means the modern law is best understood by reading it together with the very substantial body of EU implementing legislation on money laundering, trafficking, cybercrime and financial crime. The Attorney General has ultimate control over prosecutions and is constitutionally independent. Extradition and mutual assistance operate through the European Arrest Warrant framework as an EU member state.

2010 Criminal Code with corporate criminal liability

The Criminal Code of 2009, in force from 2010, modernised the offence catalogue and introduced a material-formal concept of crime. Corporate criminal liability was added in 2012, with a compliance defence that has become central to Czech corporate practice.

For companies, a documented and genuinely operating compliance programme is the statutory route to exclude liability, so evidence of training and controls matters more than policy text.

Received Belgian-derived criminal law, with military jurisdiction over grave crimes

The Penal Code descends from Belgian colonial legislation as amended. The 2006 sexual violence laws substantially reformed the treatment of rape, and military courts retain jurisdiction over war crimes and crimes against humanity under the 2002 Military Judicial Code.

DR Congo is one of the few states where military courts routinely try international crimes against civilians, a consequence of the 2002 Military Judicial Code and of the conflict in the east. The 2006 sexual violence statutes were a landmark, defining rape broadly and removing the possibility of settlement by customary compensation.

The Straffeloven, lay judges and a unified prosecution service

Criminal law rests on the Penal Code (Straffeloven). Serious cases are tried with lay judges alongside professionals, and prosecutions are run by the police and the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Denmark emphasises short custodial sentences and resocialisation, so headline maximum terms are lower than in many neighbouring systems.

A 1995 penal code on the French model, with piracy jurisdiction as a live speciality

The Code Pénal 1995 and the Code de Procédure Pénale follow French structure. Djibouti has exercised jurisdiction over maritime piracy suspects transferred by international naval forces, which is an unusual practical specialisation.

The structure will be familiar to anyone who works with French criminal procedure: a public prosecutor, an investigating magistrate for serious offences, and a distinction between contraventions, délits and crimes that drives which court hears the matter. The distinctive element is maritime. Djibouti's position at the mouth of the Red Sea, and the presence of counter-piracy naval operations, led to transfer arrangements under which suspects detained at sea were prosecuted in Djiboutian courts, and it hosts the regional training centre associated with the Djibouti Code of Conduct on piracy and armed robbery at sea. The death penalty was abolished by the 1995 code. Trafficking legislation was introduced in 2007 and strengthened subsequently, reflecting Djibouti's position on the migration route between the Horn and the Arabian Peninsula.

Offences Against the Person Act with common law procedure

Criminal law rests on the Offences Against the Person Act, the Larceny Act and the Drugs (Prevention of Misuse) Act, supplemented by common law offences. Indictable matters are tried in the High Court before a judge and jury; summary matters go to the Magistrate's Court. Prosecutions are conducted by the Director of Public Prosecutions, whose independence is protected by the Constitution.

Preliminary inquiries before a magistrate have been progressively replaced by paper committals to reduce delay, so the committal stage is now largely documentary. Dominica retains capital punishment on the statute book for murder, but no execution has been carried out for decades, and following Privy Council and now CCJ authority the mandatory death sentence has been read down so that sentencing discretion must be exercised.

Accusatorial Código Procesal Penal of 2002 with a 1884 Penal Code

The Código Procesal Penal, Ley 76-02, replaced the old inquisitorial procedure with an accusatorial and oral system, giving the Ministerio Público the investigative lead and introducing the juez de la instrucción as a guarantor of rights. The substantive Código Penal still dates from 1884 in its structure, and repeated attempts at wholesale replacement have not been enacted. Pre-trial detention is subject to a maximum duration, and the case must be brought within a statutory period or it is extinguished.

The three-year extinction rule is the single most consequential feature of Dominican criminal procedure, because a prosecution that stalls simply dies, and defence strategy is often built around the calendar rather than the evidence. The 48-hour rule is constitutional as well as statutory, and detention beyond it without judicial authorisation renders the deprivation of liberty unlawful.

COIP consolidated criminal law and procedure in one code

The Código Orgánico Integral Penal (COIP) of 2014 unified substantive criminal law, procedure and sentence execution in a single instrument, replacing three separate codes. Procedure is accusatorial and oral, led by the Fiscalía General del Estado. Recent security emergencies have prompted repeated states of exception and military support to policing.

Consolidating substance, procedure and execution into the COIP is unusual and makes Ecuadorian criminal law comparatively easy to navigate from a single text. The COIP also codified offences reflecting the 2008 Constitution, including crimes against nature and femicide, and set out the rules for indigenous justice coordination where a community exercises its own jurisdiction.

A French-model penal code, with military and emergency jurisdiction over civilians

The Penal Code of 1937 and the 1950 Criminal Procedure Code follow the French inquisitorial model. Counter-terrorism legislation and Article 204 of the constitution allow military trial of civilians in defined cases.

Investigation is led by the Public Prosecution, which functions as an investigating authority rather than merely as a trial advocate, so the decisive stage of an Egyptian criminal case is often the prosecutorial investigation rather than the hearing. Pre-trial detention has statutory limits but renewal in successive periods has been the subject of sustained criticism, and the practical duration can be long. The 2015 Counter-Terrorism Law defines terrorist acts broadly and carries enhanced penalties and procedural departures. Judgments of the State Security Emergency Courts are not subject to ordinary appeal and require ratification by the President, which is a structural difference from the ordinary hierarchy rather than a detail.

Adversarial code operating under emergency modification

The 2011 Código Procesal Penal is adversarial and oral. Since 2022, however, the régimen de excepción and successive anti-gang statutes have altered detention limits, group liability and juvenile penalties, so the code as written no longer describes practice on its own.

Any advice must start from the currently effective emergency decree rather than the code. Human-rights bodies have documented tens of thousands of detentions without individualised evidence, and access to counsel at the arrest stage is not guaranteed while the regime is in force.

The Spanish Código Penal of 1963 as received, with modern additions

Criminal law derives from the Spanish Penal Code applicable at independence, amended by national statutes on torture, trafficking and money laundering. Military courts have historically tried offences against the state.

Because the received Spanish code has never been comprehensively replaced, Equatoguinean criminal law is one of the few African systems where the operative text is a mid-century Spanish statute, and locating current amendments is correspondingly difficult.

A 2015 penal code alongside a Special Court and indefinite detention without trial

Penal Code Proclamation 167/2015 replaced the 1991 transitional code and abolished the death penalty in law. A Special Court operating outside the ordinary judiciary tries cases without appeal, and incommunicado detention is extensively documented.

The 2015 Penal Code is, on its face, a modernisation: it abolished capital punishment, introduced a determinate sentencing framework and defined offences with more precision than the 1991 transitional code. It cannot be read as describing the criminal justice system. The Special Court, established in 1996 and staffed by military officers, tries corruption and political cases without defence counsel and without appeal. The UN Commission of Inquiry documented arbitrary arrest, enforced disappearance, incommunicado detention without charge for years, torture, and the use of national service as forced labour, and concluded that crimes against humanity had been committed. Detention facilities include shipping containers and underground cells. There is no independent judiciary, no bar association able to act freely, and no published case law, so the code's provisions cannot be treated as the operative law.

The Penal Code with prosecutor-led investigation and no jury

Criminal law is codified in the Penal Code, with the Prosecutor's Office directing investigations. There is no jury; professional judges decide, with lay judges in the most serious cases.

A large share of Estonian criminal cases are resolved by settlement or expedited procedure rather than contested trial.

Roman-Dutch common-law crimes with statutory supplements and retained capital punishment

Serious offences remain Roman-Dutch common-law crimes, supplemented by statutes including the Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Act 2018 and the Suppression of Terrorism Act 2008. The death penalty is retained but has not been carried out since 1983. Swazi National Courts try minor customary offences.

The Suppression of Terrorism Act has been the most contested criminal statute, used against political activists and criticised for definitional breadth; parts of it were declared unconstitutional in 2016 before being amended.

The 2004 Criminal Code, with anti-terrorism law that has driven most controversy

The Criminal Code Proclamation 414/2004 replaced the 1957 Penal Code, criminalising FGM, trafficking and marital rape-adjacent conduct. The 2009 anti-terrorism proclamation was replaced in 2020 after years of criticism over its use against journalists.

The 2004 code modernised the substantive law considerably, adding offences around harmful traditional practices and human trafficking that the 1957 code did not address. The contested area has been counter-terrorism: Proclamation 652/2009 defined terrorism broadly enough to reach reporting and political organisation, and it was used to convict journalists and opposition figures, which is why its 2020 replacement narrowed the definitions, tightened detention limits and removed some evidentiary shortcuts. Criminal procedure still rests on the 1961 code, which is widely regarded as the weakest link — a long-running redraft has not been enacted — so pre-trial detention practice and the rules on remand are governed by a text older than the substantive code it serves. Ethiopia retains the death penalty in law but executions are extremely rare.

Crimes Act 2009 and Criminal Procedure Act 2009, no death penalty

The Penal Code was replaced by the Crimes Act 2009, modernising offence definitions, alongside the Criminal Procedure Act 2009. The death penalty has been fully abolished.

The 2009 reforms codified fault elements in a way modelled partly on the Australian Commonwealth Criminal Code, so intention, knowledge and recklessness are defined in the statute rather than left to case law. Serious matters are tried in the High Court, which sits with assessors rather than a jury — the judge is not bound by the assessors' opinion, which is an important structural difference from most common-law systems. There is a presumption in favour of bail under the Bail Act. Fiji abolished the death penalty for all crimes, including under military law, in 2015.

The Criminal Code and income-scaled day-fines

Criminal law is codified in the Criminal Code (Rikoslaki). Fines are set as day-fines scaled to the offender's income, producing internationally famous high-value speeding fines for wealthy drivers.

Because fines scale with income, the same traffic offence can cost a high earner tens of thousands of euros.

An investigating-judge tradition with a Code pénal and Code de procédure pénale

Serious offences are investigated by a juge d'instruction and tried, for crimes, by the cour d'assises or the newer cour criminelle départementale. The parquet directs prosecution and lesser cases go before the tribunal correctionnel.

The juge d'instruction now handles only the most complex cases; most prosecutions run directly through the parquet.

The 2019 Penal Code, with a 2020 decriminalisation reversal

Gabon recodified its criminal law in 2019. The new code criminalised same-sex relations, and parliament reversed that provision in 2020 after domestic and international objection — an unusually rapid legislative reversal.

The 2019 code and its 2020 amendment are a useful reminder that recodification is not the same as liberalisation: Gabon's new code both modernised sentencing and introduced a new offence, then withdrew it within a year.

Criminal Code on the received English model, with a 2018 moratorium on the death penalty

The Criminal Code (Cap 10:01) codifies offences on the English colonial pattern, with the Criminal Procedure Code governing process. The Gambia declared a moratorium on executions in 2018 and acceded to the Second Optional Protocol to the ICCPR, though the death penalty remains in the Code pending abolition.

The Criminal Code is a colonial-era code, amended over time, covering offences against the person, property, public order and morality. The Criminal Procedure Code provides for arrest, bail, committal and trial, and the Constitution requires that a detained person be brought before a court within 72 hours. In 2018 the government declared an official moratorium on the death penalty and acceded to the Second Optional Protocol to the ICCPR, committing to abolition; the penalty remains in the Criminal Code, so the position is a treaty commitment plus moratorium rather than statutory abolition — a distinction that matters for any accurate statement of Gambian law. The Sexual Offences Act 2013 and the Women's (Amendment) Act 2015 modernised sexual offences and criminalised female genital mutilation, with the 2015 amendment prescribing imprisonment and a fine; a 2024 parliamentary attempt to repeal the FGM prohibition was defeated. The 2013 amendments criminalising 'aggravated homosexuality' with life imprisonment remain in force.

The 1999 Criminal Code with jury trial for the gravest offences

The Criminal Code of 1999 and the Criminal Procedure Code of 2009 govern criminal justice. The 2009 procedure code introduced an adversarial model unusual for a civil law country, including jury trials for the most serious offences and a formal plea bargaining regime.

The 2009 Criminal Procedure Code was a deliberate move away from the inquisitorial Soviet inheritance towards an adversarial contest between prosecution and defence, with the judge as umpire. Jury trials were introduced for a narrow set of the gravest offences, making Georgia one of very few civil law jurisdictions with lay juries in criminal cases. Plea agreements resolve a large majority of prosecutions, which has drawn criticism about pressure on defendants. The death penalty was abolished in 1997. Pre-trial detention is capped at nine months by the Constitution, a hard limit that shapes investigative practice.

The StGB, the legality principle and public prosecutors

Criminal law rests on the Strafgesetzbuch and the legality principle, which obliges prosecutors to pursue every sufficiently suspected offence. There is no jury; lay judges (Schöffen) sit alongside professionals.

Fines are set as daily units scaled to income, so the same offence costs a high earner far more than a low earner.

Criminal Offences Act 1960 with a codified procedure act and an abolitionist turn on the death penalty

The Criminal Offences Act 1960 (Act 29) codifies substantive crime and the Criminal and Other Offences (Procedure) Act 1960 (Act 30) governs procedure. In 2023 Parliament abolished the death penalty for ordinary crimes, replacing it with life imprisonment, though it remains for high treason under the Constitution.

Act 29 is a colonial-era code that has been amended repeatedly rather than replaced. The major recent development is the Criminal Offences (Amendment) Act 2023, which removed the death penalty from the Criminal Offences Act and substituted life imprisonment; because article 3(3) of the Constitution prescribes death for high treason, full abolition requires constitutional amendment, so Ghana is de jure abolitionist for ordinary crimes only. Ghana has had no execution since 1993. Act 30 governs arrest, bail and trial; the Supreme Court in Martin Kpebu v Attorney-General (2016) struck down s.96(7), which had made certain offences non-bailable, holding that the courts must retain discretion over bail. Customary arbitration has statutory recognition for some disputes but not for indictable offences.

The 2019 Penal Code and Code of Criminal Procedure with an investigating judge

Greece enacted new Penal and Criminal Procedure Codes in 2019, reducing sentence severity and simplifying procedure. Serious cases are investigated by an investigating judge, and mixed courts of judges hear the gravest offences.

Because the 2019 codes were more lenient in places, the more favourable law applies to conduct predating them.

Criminal Code with jury trial in the High Court

The Criminal Code sets out offences against the person and property, supplemented by the Drug Abuse (Prevention and Control) Act and the Proceeds of Crime Act. Indictable trials take place in the High Court before a judge and jury; summary matters go before a magistrate. The Director of Public Prosecutions conducts prosecutions independently under the Constitution.

Grenada retains capital punishment for murder in the Criminal Code, and because it has kept the Privy Council as its final court the line of authority beginning with Pratt v Attorney General applies directly, so prolonged delay on death row itself becomes inhuman punishment and commutation follows. The mandatory nature of the sentence has likewise been read down so that individual sentencing discretion must be exercised.

Adversarial procedure with a strong private-prosecution role

The 1992 Código Procesal Penal introduced oral adversarial trial. The Ministerio Público prosecutes, but victims may join as querellante adhesivo and drive a case forward, a mechanism that produced Guatemala's landmark grave-crimes and corruption prosecutions.

Case backlogs and the use of amparo as a delay device are the defining features of practice. Since CICIG's mandate ended in 2019 a number of judges and prosecutors handling corruption cases have left the country, and defence strategies increasingly turn on jurisdictional challenges.

Code pénal 2016 abolishing the death penalty, with the 2009 stadium massacre trial

Loi L/2016/059 abolished the death penalty for ordinary crimes. The landmark development is the trial, begun in 2022, of former junta figures for the 28 September 2009 stadium massacre — a rare domestic prosecution of senior officers for mass atrocity.

The 2009 stadium massacre trial matters beyond Guinea: it is one of very few instances in which a domestic African court has tried a former head of the junta and senior commanders for crimes against humanity, with convictions delivered in 2024. It followed more than a decade of investigation, and the abolition of the death penalty in 2016 removed a significant obstacle to international cooperation in such cases.

Código Penal 1993 with narcotics trafficking as the dominant enforcement problem

The 1993 Código Penal, Portuguese in structure, governs. The death penalty is abolished. Guinea-Bissau's criminal justice profile is defined by its role as a transit point for South American cocaine, with prosecutions of senior officials rare.

Guinea-Bissau has been described as the region's first narco-state, and the practical failure of criminal law here is one of enforcement against the security apparatus itself: senior military figures have been indicted abroad, including by the United States, while domestic prosecutions stalled. Judicial infrastructure outside Bissau is minimal, with many regions lacking a sitting court.

Common-law criminal procedure with jury trial for indictable offences

Criminal law follows the Criminal Law (Offences) Act and procedure the Criminal Law (Procedure) Act, with summary matters in the magistrates' courts and indictable offences tried before a judge and jury in the High Court. Paper committals were introduced to reduce delay. Plea bargaining is statutory under the Criminal Procedure (Plea Bargaining and Plea Agreement) Act 2008.

The death penalty remains on the statute book for murder and treason but Guyana has not carried out an execution since 1997, and the CCJ's jurisprudence on mandatory death sentences has constrained its application. Trial by jury for indictable offences distinguishes Guyanese procedure sharply from its Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking neighbours on the continent.

1835 Code pénal, with a 2020 replacement decree still suspended

The operative substantive law remains the Code pénal of 1835 and the Code d'instruction criminelle of 1835, both of French origin. Decrees published in June 2020 would have replaced both with a modern penal code and code of criminal procedure, but their entry into force was postponed and their legitimacy was contested because they were issued without a functioning Parliament. Prosecutions are brought by the Commissaire du Gouvernement, and the juge d'instruction investigates serious offences.

Prolonged pre-trial detention is the defining feature of Haitian criminal justice in practice: a large majority of the prison population has not been tried, and the 48-hour rule is frequently not observed, which international monitors document consistently. Anyone advising on Haitian criminal law must confirm whether the 2020 codes have been brought into force, because much secondary commentary written since 2020 wrongly assumes they were.

A received nineteenth-century code, modernised by motu proprio

Vatican criminal law grew out of the Italian code received in 1929 and has been reformed by papal legislation, notably in 2013 for offences against minors and international crimes. The Vatican Tribunal tries cases, with appeal and cassation inside the State.

Canonical and Vatican criminal proceedings are distinct tracks and can run in parallel over the same conduct.

New Penal Code since 2020 with adversarial procedure

The Código Procesal Penal of 1999 introduced adversarial oral trial, and a new Código Penal took effect in 2020, reducing several sentences and restructuring offence categories in a change that drew criticism for its treatment of corruption offences.

Pre-trial detention is heavily used despite its exceptional status in the code, and prison overcrowding is severe. Extortion cases carry mandatory detention, which shapes plea strategy in practice.

The 2012 Criminal Code with a three-strikes rule

Act C of 2012 introduced a markedly punitive code, including actual life imprisonment and a doubling of the penalty range for repeat violent offenders. The 2017 Code of Criminal Procedure added plea agreements and simplified routes to shorten trials.

Defence counsel is compulsory in a wide range of cases and the file must be disclosed before the plea stage, so pushing for disclosure early is what makes an agreement negotiable.

The 1940 General Penal Code with prosecution led by the DPP

Criminal law is based on the General Penal Code of 1940. Prosecutions are directed by the Director of Public Prosecutions, and serious cases are tried in the District Courts with possible appeal to Landsréttur.

Iceland's small scale means serious violent crime is rare, and the system emphasises rehabilitation and short sentences.

Three new criminal codes replaced the colonial statutes in July 2024

The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita and Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam came into force on 1 July 2024, replacing the 1860 Penal Code, 1973 CrPC and 1872 Evidence Act.

Offences committed before 1 July 2024 are still tried under the old codes, so both regimes run in parallel for years — identifying the date of the offence is now the first step in any Indian criminal matter. The BNS renumbered nearly everything, added organised crime and terrorism offences into the general code, and replaced sedition with a differently framed offence against the sovereignty of India. The BNSS introduces timelines for judgment and permits trial in absentia for proclaimed absconders.

A new Criminal Code enacted in 2023, in force from 2026

Indonesia enacted Law No. 1 of 2023, a wholly new Criminal Code replacing the Dutch colonial KUHP, with a three-year transition making it effective in January 2026. It is the most significant criminal law change in Indonesian history and includes controversial provisions on cohabitation, insulting the President and customary law offences. Until it takes effect the colonial code still governs.

The colonial KUHP governs offences until Law No. 1 of 2023 takes effect in January 2026. The new Code recognises living customary law as a source of criminal liability in limited circumstances. The death penalty is retained but recast as an alternative punishment with a ten-year probationary period. Provisions criminalising extramarital cohabitation are prosecutable only on complaint by close family. Any criminal-law advice must state which code applies to the conduct date — this is a live transition, not settled law. Aceh additionally applies Qanun Jinayat, a Sharia criminal regulation, with caning as a penalty.

A penal code organised around hadd, qisas, diya and ta'zir

The Islamic Penal Code, substantially revised in 2013, classifies punishments as hadd (fixed by scripture), qisas (retaliation), diya (blood money) and ta'zir (discretionary). Iran retains and frequently applies the death penalty.

The 2013 code was the first comprehensive revision since 1991 and introduced provisions on criminal liability of legal persons and on alternatives to imprisonment, while retaining the hadd and qisas categories. Qisas cases are private in an important sense: the victim's family can demand retaliation, accept diya or forgive, and the state's role is to adjudicate the entitlement. Iran is one of a small number of states that executes a high volume of people each year, principally for narcotics and murder, and reporting by UN special procedures is the most reliable open source on practice as distinct from text.

The Penal Code 1969, the anti-terrorism law, and a retained death penalty

The Penal Code No. 111 of 1969 remains the general criminal statute. The Anti-Terrorism Law No. 13 of 2005 is heavily used and carries capital punishment. Iraq executes a significant number of people each year.

The 1969 code is a conventional civil law penal statute of Egyptian lineage. The investigative judge, not the prosecutor, directs the investigation and decides whether to refer a case to trial. The 2005 anti-terrorism law defines terrorism broadly and has been the basis for mass prosecutions; UN and NGO reporting has raised the reliance on confessions and the brevity of trials. Kurdistan abolished some penalties applied federally and suspended executions in practice, so the same nominal offence can carry a materially different outcome depending on which authority prosecutes.

Common-law offences and statutes, jury trial and the DPP

Serious offences are tried on indictment before a judge and jury, with the Director of Public Prosecutions conducting prosecutions on Garda evidence. The Special Criminal Court sits without a jury for defined offences.

The Special Criminal Court remains controversial precisely because it removes the constitutional default of trial by jury.

The Penal Law of 1977 with no jury and no death penalty in practice

The Penal Law 5737-1977 is the principal substantive criminal statute, and the Criminal Procedure Law governs process. Trials are before professional judges without a jury. Capital punishment exists only for genocide and crimes against humanity and has been carried out once.

The Penal Law consolidated and replaced the Mandate-era Criminal Code Ordinance of 1936. Serious offences are tried in the District Court before a panel of three judges; there is no jury. Detention before charge is subject to judicial extension under the 1996 Arrests Law, and the Supreme Court has developed substantial jurisprudence limiting interrogation methods, notably the 1999 decision prohibiting physical pressure in Shin Bet questioning. Administrative detention remains available under emergency legislation and is subject to judicial review. The death penalty is confined to genocide and Nazi crimes and was applied only in the Eichmann case.

The Rocco Code with an adversarial procedure and mandatory prosecution

Offences are set out in the 1930 Penal Code, heavily amended, while the 1988 Code of Criminal Procedure introduced an adversarial trial. Prosecution is constitutionally mandatory, and preliminary hearings filter cases before trial.

Entity liability under Legislative Decree 231/2001 makes an adopted and effective compliance model the key corporate defence.

Code pénal 2019 with the death penalty abolished since 2000

Loi n° 2019-574 recodified criminal law. The death penalty was abolished by the 2000 Constitution and the abolition is retained in the 2016 text. A specialised cellule handles economic and financial crime, and post-conflict prosecutions have proceeded slowly.

Accountability for the 2010-2011 post-electoral violence is the defining issue in Ivorian criminal law. The ICC tried and acquitted Laurent Gbagbo, domestic prosecutions have been criticised as one-sided, and a 2018 amnesty covering some post-electoral offences drew objections from victims' groups. The 2019 Code itself is a conventional francophone recodification.

Offences Against the Person Act with plea negotiation since 2017

Substantive criminal law is largely statutory, led by the Offences Against the Person Act, and procedure runs through the Judicature (Parish Courts) Act for summary matters and the Criminal Justice (Administration) Act for indictable trials. The Criminal Justice (Plea Negotiations and Agreements) Act 2017 put plea agreements on a statutory footing, requiring the court to review any agreed sentence rather than simply endorse it. Prosecutions are conducted by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Most cases begin in a Parish Court, which handles summary matters and committal, with serious indictable offences tried in the Circuit divisions of the Supreme Court, historically before a judge and jury. The 2017 plea statute matters because it made the discount for a plea transparent and reviewable, which changed how early resolution is negotiated in practice.

Lay judge trials, 23-day pre-charge detention, and retained capital punishment

Serious cases are tried by a mixed panel of three judges and six lay judges. Police and prosecutors may hold a suspect for up to 23 days before charge, and the death penalty remains in use.

The 23-day pre-charge detention period, combined with interrogation without counsel present, has drawn repeated criticism from UN treaty bodies and is the core of what critics call hostage justice, since release often follows confession. Conviction rates exceed 99 per cent of prosecuted cases, partly because prosecutors decline weak cases. Recording of interrogations became mandatory for lay-judge and prosecution-led cases in 2019. The 2016 reforms introduced a limited plea-bargaining mechanism for organised and economic crime.

The Penal Code 1960, with state security courts alongside the ordinary system

The Penal Code No. 16 of 1960 is the general criminal statute. The State Security Court, a partly military tribunal, retains jurisdiction over terrorism, espionage and drug offences. The death penalty is retained and occasionally carried out.

Jordan repealed the provision allowing a reduced sentence for so-called honour killings in 2017 amendments, and removed the article that exempted a rapist who married his victim — both meaningful reforms. The continuing structural criticism concerns the State Security Court, whose panels include military judges and whose jurisdiction over broadly drafted terrorism offences has been extended to speech-related conduct. Administrative detention under the 1954 Crime Prevention Law, which allows governors to detain without charge, is used at scale and sits outside the criminal process entirely; it is the feature most often missed in a purely code-based reading.

Death penalty fully abolished in 2021, with jury trial for serious offences

Kazakhstan ratified the Second Optional Protocol to the ICCPR and abolished capital punishment for all crimes in 2021. Serious offences may be tried with jury participation.

The 2014 codes introduced criminal misdemeanours as a lower tier and expanded non-custodial options. Jury panels of ten sit with a judge for offences carrying life imprisonment, and decide guilt jointly with the judge rather than separately. A separate investigative judge authorises detention, search and surveillance, a structural safeguard added to address prosecutorial dominance. Torture is a distinct offence and the National Preventive Mechanism inspects places of detention.

The Penal Code with constitutionalised criminal procedure since 2010

The Penal Code (Cap 63) remains the principal offence-creating statute, but the 2010 constitution transformed procedure: article 49 fixes arrested persons' rights, article 50 guarantees a fair trial, and the Supreme Court held the mandatory death sentence for murder unconstitutional in Muruatetu (2017).

Kenyan criminal law shows the 2010 constitution operating as a filter over inherited colonial statutes rather than replacing them. The Penal Code's text is largely unchanged, but the mandatory death penalty, the treatment of bail and the admissibility of confessions have all been reshaped by constitutional litigation — Muruatetu being the clearest example, where the Supreme Court struck down the mandatory sentence while leaving the offence intact.

Penal Code with the death penalty abolished at independence

Offences are set out in the Penal Code with procedure under the Criminal Procedure Code, prosecuted by the Attorney General's Office. There is no death penalty.

The Penal Code descends from the Gilbert and Ellice Islands colonial code and closely resembles Tuvalu's, which shares the same origin. The 2017 amendments were a substantive modernisation of sexual offences, aligning definitions and evidence rules with the Family Peace Act reforms. Serious matters are tried in the High Court by judge alone, with lay magistrates handling the bulk of ordinary offending across the islands. Kiribati abolished capital punishment at independence, so it is fully abolitionist in law rather than merely in practice — a genuine contrast with Tonga.

A 1960 penal code with sharia influence on morality offences

The Penal Code of 1960 predates independence and codifies most offences. Sharia influences the treatment of morality and family-related offences.

Alcohol is entirely prohibited in Kuwait, which distinguishes it from the UAE, Bahrain and Qatar, and possession or consumption is a criminal matter rather than a licensing one. The 2015 cybercrime law is broadly drafted and prosecutions for online criticism of the Emir, the judiciary or friendly states are a live risk. Blasphemy and insulting religion are offences. Kuwait retains the death penalty and has carried out executions in recent years. The code's age means it is heavily overlaid by amendment and special legislation, so the consolidated text matters more than the original.

Death penalty abolished; codes rewritten in 2019 and reversed in 2021

Capital punishment was abolished constitutionally in 2007 and by protocol accession. A modernising 2019 Criminal Code was largely repealed in 2021, returning much of the 1997 approach.

The 2019 codes had reduced the use of imprisonment, introduced a misdemeanour tier and expanded probation; their repeal in 2021 was justified on enforcement grounds but reversed several liberalising reforms. Torture remains a distinct offence and a National Centre for the Prevention of Torture inspects detention, though impunity findings recur in treaty-body reporting. Trial is by professional judges; jury trial is provided for constitutionally but has not been implemented.

A 2017 Penal Code replacing the 1989 Criminal Law

The Penal Code of 2017 replaced the 1989 Criminal Law, consolidating offences and penalties. The death penalty remains available for serious drug offences, though executions are not reported to have been carried out for many years. Drug offences carry very severe penalties and are the most common serious charge affecting foreign nationals.

The Penal Code 2017 is the consolidated criminal statute. The death penalty is retained for aggravated drug trafficking and certain other offences. The Law on Criminal Procedure 2017 governs investigation, detention and trial. Defamation and offences against the state are criminal and have been applied to online speech. Drug quantity thresholds trigger mandatory severe sentences — this is the dominant risk for foreign visitors. Consular access is provided for but delays are common; detention conditions are a practical concern.

The Criminal Law with prosecutor-led cases and no jury

Criminal law is codified in the Criminal Law, with the Prosecutor's Office bringing charges. There is no jury; professional judges decide, and simplified procedures resolve many cases.

Latvia has expanded settlement and expedited procedures to reduce court backlogs in criminal matters.

The Penal Code 1943, with military court jurisdiction over civilians

The Penal Code of 1943 is the general criminal statute. The Military Court exercises jurisdiction over civilians in cases touching security and the armed forces, which is the principal structural criticism of the system.

The 2001 Code of Criminal Procedure introduced defence rights that the 1948 code lacked, including the presence of counsel during investigation. Law No. 65 of 2017 criminalised torture, though NGOs note its definition and limitation period fall short of the Convention against Torture. Article 522, which suspended prosecution where a rapist married the victim, was repealed in 2017. The retained military court jurisdiction over civilians — for offences involving the army, security services or espionage, broadly construed — is repeatedly criticised by UN treaty bodies, and it is the single most important qualification on any description of Lebanese criminal justice.

Penal Code Act 2010 codifying formerly Roman-Dutch common-law crimes

The Penal Code Act 6 of 2010 codified the substantive criminal law, which had previously rested on Roman-Dutch common-law crimes supplemented by statute. The death penalty remains available for murder and treason but no execution has been carried out since 1995. Procedure follows the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act 1981.

Codification in 2010 placed Lesotho with Zimbabwe as a Roman-Dutch jurisdiction that has replaced judge-made crimes with a statutory code, in contrast to Botswana and Namibia where the common-law crimes survive.

A codified Penal Law on the American model, with the death penalty retained in law

The Penal Law of 1976, drafted on the American Law Institute Model Penal Code pattern, codifies offences with graded felonies and misdemeanours. The Criminal Procedure Law governs process. Liberia acceded to the Second Optional Protocol to the ICCPR in 2005 but subsequently legislated capital punishment for certain offences.

The Penal Law (title 26 of the Liberian Code of Laws Revised) follows the Model Penal Code approach with culpability levels and offence grading into first- and second-degree felonies and misdemeanours, which distinguishes Liberia sharply from the British-derived codes elsewhere in the region. The Criminal Procedure Law (title 2) provides for arrest, bail, indictment by grand jury and trial by petty jury — again American in form. Liberia acceded to the Second Optional Protocol to the ICCPR abolishing the death penalty in 2005, but the 2008 Act amending the Penal Law prescribed death for armed robbery, terrorism and hijacking resulting in death, creating an acknowledged conflict with its treaty obligation; no execution has been carried out since 2000. The Rape Amendment Act 2005 redefined rape, made gang rape non-bailable and created Criminal Court E to try sexual offences. Trial by ordeal, though restricted by statute and case law, persists in practice and has been the subject of Supreme Court condemnation.

A 1953 penal code overlaid by conflict-era measures and ICC jurisdiction

The Penal Code of 1953 remains the base instrument, supplemented by Gaddafi-era security laws and post-2011 measures. The ICC retains jurisdiction over Libya under Security Council Resolution 1970.

Two features distinguish Libyan criminal law. First, the ICC has open jurisdiction by Security Council referral, and warrants have been issued and partly unexecuted, which means serious international crimes are subject to a forum outside the national system. Second, sharia-derived hudud provisions were introduced in the 1970s for offences including theft and adultery and formally remain, though application has been limited. Law 10/2013 criminalised torture and enforced disappearance, but detention by armed groups outside any legal framework has continued to be documented, and accountability has been minimal. Assessing criminal exposure in Libya therefore requires identifying which authority controls the relevant territory and whether courts are functioning there at all.

An Austrian-model system with a public prosecutor and no jury

Criminal law and procedure follow the Austrian model, with a Criminal Code and Code of Criminal Procedure closely tracking Austrian law. The public prosecutor directs prosecution, an investigating judge conducts inquiries in serious cases, and professional judges try cases without a jury.

The close reception of Austrian law means Austrian case law and commentary are influential in Liechtenstein criminal practice. Serious financial crime is a notable focus given the country's financial sector.

The 2000 Criminal Code, led by the Prosecutor General

Criminal law rests on the Criminal Code of 2000, with the Prosecutor General's Office directing prosecutions. There is no jury; professional judges decide, and settlement procedures exist for minor cases.

Lithuania has expanded mediation and reconciliation in criminal matters, particularly for first-time and minor offenders.

A French-model inquisitorial system led by the public prosecutor

Criminal justice follows the French inquisitorial model. The public prosecutor (Parquet) directs prosecution, an investigating judge (juge d'instruction) conducts the inquiry in serious cases, and trial courts sit without a jury. The Criminal Code and Code of Criminal Procedure derive from the Napoleonic codes.

The investigating judge remains central to serious cases, distinguishing the system from adversarial models. Appeals run through the Court of Appeal to the Court of Cassation on points of law.

Code pénal with the death penalty abolished in 2015

The Code pénal, French in origin and amended nationally, contains the principal offences. Madagascar abolished the death penalty by Loi 2014-035, promulgated in early 2015, having not carried out an execution since 1958. Anti-trafficking and cattle-rustling (dahalo) offences carry heavy penalties.

Abolition in 2015 was a formal step confirming a long de facto moratorium. In practice, the most consequential criminal-justice issue is prolonged pre-trial detention, which affects a majority of the prison population.

Penal Code offences with the mandatory death penalty struck down

The Penal Code (Cap 7:01) contains the principal offences. Kafantayeni v Attorney General (2007) held the mandatory death penalty for murder unconstitutional, requiring individualised sentencing, and a large resentencing exercise followed. The death penalty remains on the statute book but no execution has been carried out since 1992.

Kafantayeni is the significant decision: by removing the mandatory element rather than the penalty itself, it required Malawi to resentence every prisoner condemned under the old rule, and it has been cited across the region in challenges to mandatory sentencing.

A Penal Code on Indian lines, with the mandatory death penalty abolished in 2023

The Penal Code follows the Indian model. In 2023 Malaysia abolished the mandatory death penalty, giving courts discretion in the 11 offences that previously carried it and allowing resentencing of those already condemned. Preventive detention powers under SOSMA remain in force and allow detention without trial for security offences.

The Penal Code (Act 574) is the general criminal statute. The mandatory death penalty was abolished in 2023; courts now have sentencing discretion. SOSMA permits detention for 28 days without judicial order for security offences. Sharia criminal offences exist at state level for Muslims, with penalties capped by federal law. The 2023 reform allows resentencing applications for those under existing death sentences — a live area of practice. Drug trafficking under the Dangerous Drugs Act carries presumptions of trafficking based on quantity that shift the burden to the accused.

2014 Penal Code codified offences alongside retained hudud

The Penal Code 2014, in force from 2015, was a substantial modernisation drafted with comparative input. It codifies offences and defences while preserving hudud offences drawn directly from Islamic law.

The 2014 Code introduced a structured sentencing framework, mens rea categories and a general part of unusual sophistication for the region. Flogging remains available for fornication and is imposed. The death penalty exists in law and has been the subject of announced resumptions, but no execution has been carried out for decades. The 2016 Procedure Act codified arrest, detention and disclosure rules for the first time.

Code pénal 2001 retaining the death penalty in law, with a long-standing moratorium

Loi n° 01-079 governs. The death penalty remains on the statute book but Mali has observed a moratorium on executions for decades. A specialised judicial pole handles terrorism and transnational organised crime.

Mali's criminal justice system operates across a territory much of which the state does not control, and in the north and centre non-state armed groups and Islamic courts administer their own justice. The specialised Bamako pole concentrates terrorism prosecutions, but investigation depends on evidence gathered in areas courts cannot reach, and the ICC has separately prosecuted the destruction of Timbuktu's mausoleums.

The Criminal Code with police prosecution and Attorney General oversight

Offences and procedure are both contained in the Criminal Code. Following reform, the Attorney General prosecutes indictable matters while the police continue to prosecute in the Courts of Magistrates, and trial by jury applies to the gravest offences.

The 2019 reforms separated the Attorney General's prosecuting role from the State Advocate's advisory role; check which office is involved.

Criminal Code 2011 on a US model, prosecuted by the Attorney-General

The Criminal Code 2011 codifies offences and defences on a United States model. Serious matters are tried in the High Court, summary matters in the District and Community Courts.

The Criminal Code 2011 replaced older Trust Territory provisions with a modern code drawing on the US Model Penal Code, including graded offence classes and codified culpability standards. Constitutional protections in article II cover arrest, counsel, self-incrimination and unreasonable search, and are read in light of United States authority given the shared drafting heritage. There is no death penalty. Practical constraints dominate: legal aid and defence capacity are thin, judges and prosecutors are often recruited from abroad, and the geographic spread across the atolls means Community Courts staffed by local judges handle much day-to-day work. Custom may be relevant to mitigation and to reconciliation, but it does not displace the code.

Sharia-based criminal law with hadd penalties and apostasy carrying the death penalty

Ordonnance n° 83-162 introduced a criminal code applying sharia, including hadd penalties. Apostasy carries a mandatory death sentence following a 2018 amendment removing the possibility of repentance-based commutation. No executions have taken place since 1987.

Mauritanian criminal law applies hadd penalties including amputation and stoning in its text, though these have not been carried out in recent decades, and the 2018 amendment made the death sentence for apostasy mandatory even where the accused repents. The gap between the Code as enacted and its enforcement is therefore very wide, and death sentences pronounced have consistently been commuted rather than executed.

Criminal Code of French origin with English procedure and no death penalty

The Criminal Code derives from the French code but is applied through English-style adversarial procedure with the Director of Public Prosecutions conducting prosecutions. The death penalty was abolished in 1995. The Supreme Court held the sodomy provision unconstitutional in 2023.

The combination is unusual: offences defined in a code of French ancestry, tried under English procedure with an independent DPP, and appealable ultimately to London. Drug offences dominate the serious-crime docket.

A single national code and an adversarial oral trial

The 2008 constitutional reform replaced the written inquisitorial process with an adversarial, oral system, fully in force since June 2016. The National Code of Criminal Procedure applies in every state and at federal level, which is unusual in a federation.

A public defender is provided from the first appearance, and interpretation is mandatory for indigenous-language speakers and foreigners. Consular notification must be offered to detained foreign nationals.

National crimes in title 11 with the states holding general criminal jurisdiction

Most ordinary crime is a state matter under state codes. Title 11 of the FSM Code covers national offences, and major crimes jurisdiction has shifted towards the states.

The Constitution gives the national government power to define major crimes, but a 1991 amendment narrowed the national role and returned general criminal jurisdiction substantially to the states, so the practical starting point for most offences is the state code. Title 11 continues to cover offences with a national dimension, including those against national government functions and certain trafficking and maritime offences. Article IV protections mirror US constitutional guarantees on arrest, counsel, double jeopardy and search, and FSM courts cite United States authority when construing them while retaining the traditional-rights overlay in article V. There is no death penalty. Custom is relevant to sentencing and to reconciliation processes, and customary apology may be taken into account without displacing the code.

The 2002 codes with an investigating judge and a 72-hour limit

The Criminal Code and Code of Criminal Procedure of 2002 govern offences and process. Detention without a court order may not exceed 72 hours, and the investigating judge authorises intrusive measures and remand.

State-guaranteed legal aid is available from the moment of detention through the National Legal Aid Council, and requesting it on the record is what triggers the duty lawyer roster.

A French-model system with an investigating judge and no jury

Criminal law and procedure follow the French tradition, with a Criminal Code and Code of Criminal Procedure. The public prosecutor directs prosecution, an investigating judge (juge d'instruction) inquires into serious offences, and the Criminal Court tries cases without a jury; the most serious crimes go to the Criminal Assize Court.

The investigating judge remains pivotal in serious cases, and appeals run through the Court of Appeal to the Court of Revision. Financial and money-laundering offences receive particular attention given the financial sector.

Death penalty abolished; 2017 code recast on proportionality lines

Mongolia abolished the death penalty for all crimes, acceding to the Second Optional Protocol to the ICCPR in 2012 and removing it from the code. The 2017 Criminal Code restructured offences and sentencing.

The 2017 code reduced the number of imprisonable offences and expanded non-custodial sentencing. Pre-trial detention requires judicial authorisation and is subject to review. Defence counsel is available from detention, and state-funded legal aid exists though capacity is limited outside the capital. Torture is a distinct criminal offence following amendments prompted by treaty-body findings.

The Criminal Code with a Special Prosecution Office for corruption

The Criminal Code and Criminal Procedure Code govern offences and process, with prosecutor-led investigation. A Special State Prosecutor's Office handles organised crime, corruption and war crimes.

Special-prosecution cases are a core EU accession benchmark, so procedural rigour in these matters attracts close scrutiny.

A 1962 penal code under long-running reform, with the death penalty in abeyance

The Penal Code of 1962 and the 2002 Criminal Procedure Code follow French structure. No execution has been carried out since 1993, and a new penal code has been in draft for years.

The 2014 reform removing civilians from military court jurisdiction was a real structural change and is often overlooked in older material. Custodial interrogation without counsel during the initial garde à vue period has been the principal fair-trial criticism, partially addressed by amendments allowing earlier access to a lawyer. Consensual extramarital sex and same-sex conduct remain criminalised under Articles 490 and 489, and abortion is prohibited except to protect the mother's health, which are the provisions the stalled penal code reform was intended to address. The death penalty remains on the books for a range of offences but Morocco has maintained a de facto moratorium since 1993, so a sentence is realistically a life sentence.

Código Penal 2019 with no death penalty and decriminalised same-sex conduct

The Código Penal (Lei 24/2019) replaced the 2014 code, which had itself replaced the Portuguese code of 1886. The 2014 reform decriminalised same-sex sexual conduct. The death penalty was abolished in 1990. Procedure follows the Código de Processo Penal as revised in 2019.

Mozambique moved from an 1886 Portuguese code to a modern national code in two steps (2014, then 2019), and the 2014 decriminalisation of same-sex conduct placed it ahead of most of the continent — a contrast with several of its immediate neighbours.

1861 colonial Penal Code plus emergency provisions used against dissent

The Penal Code of 1861 remains the core criminal statute. Since 2021 it has been supplemented by section 505A on comment causing fear or disaffection, and by counter-terrorism and electronic transactions charges used against opponents.

The death penalty exists for murder and treason, and executions resumed in July 2022 after a long moratorium. Martial law declared over numerous townships transfers jurisdiction over listed offences to military tribunals, whose proceedings are closed and from which appeal rights are severely limited. Sections 505A, 124A and the Unlawful Associations Act carry multi-year terms for speech and contact with proscribed organisations. Fair trial guarantees in the Code of Criminal Procedure, including access to counsel and public hearing, are widely reported as not being observed in political cases. Any assessment of criminal exposure in Myanmar must account for this gap.

Roman-Dutch common-law crimes, no death penalty, and community courts

Serious crimes remain common-law offences in the Roman-Dutch tradition — murder, culpable homicide, robbery — supplemented by statute. The Constitution abolished the death penalty outright in Article 6. The Criminal Procedure Act 51 of 1977, inherited from South Africa, still governs procedure.

Namibia is a rare case of constitutional abolition of the death penalty at the moment of independence, which forecloses the legislative debate that continues in Botswana and Zimbabwe.

Crimes Act 2016 replacing the Queensland-derived code

The Crimes Act 2016 was a comprehensive recodification replacing the inherited Queensland-style criminal code, modernising offences and decriminalising consensual same-sex conduct. There is no death penalty.

The Crimes Act 2016 was drafted with external assistance and is one of the most modern criminal codes in the region — a striking contrast with the colonial codes still operating in Tuvalu, Kiribati and Solomon Islands. It restated fault elements, overhauled sexual offences, abolished outdated offences and removed the prohibition on consensual same-sex conduct. Sentencing is governed by a companion Act. Nauru has no death penalty. Politically sensitive prosecutions, notably of the Nauru 19 protesters, tested judicial independence during the period when the Australian appellate link was removed, and remain the reference point for debate about the domestic Court of Appeal.

2017 Penal Code replaced the Muluki Ain

The National Penal (Code) Act 2074 (2017) and the Criminal Procedure Code replaced Nepal's century-old general code. They introduced statutory limitation periods for prosecuting most offences.

The Code abolished the death penalty in line with the Constitution and set graded imprisonment terms. Its statutory limitation periods are unusual and consequential: many offences cannot be prosecuted after a fixed period from the incident, which has been criticised in the context of conflict-era and sexual violence cases. Transitional justice for the 1996-2006 conflict runs through separate commissions whose mandate has been repeatedly extended.

An inquisitorial system with penalty orders — and a new procedure code adopted for 2029

Dutch criminal justice is prosecutor-led and inquisitorial: the Public Prosecution Service (Openbaar Ministerie) directs investigation and can impose a penalty order (strafbeschikking) for many offences without a trial. A wholly new Code of Criminal Procedure was adopted in 2026 but only enters into force on 1 April 2029, so the existing code still governs.

A strafbeschikking is not a conviction by a court, but it is recorded and carries consequences; the two-week window to object is easy to miss. Serious cases are always tried before a judge.

Unified national Crimes Act 1961 with statutory offences only

A unified national criminal law under the Crimes Act 1961, with a single court hierarchy, an early guilty plea and case management regime, and no death penalty.

Unlike Australia, criminal law is national — one Crimes Act applies throughout, so there are no state-by-state differences in offences or defences. The Criminal Procedure Act 2011 sorts offences into four categories that determine the trial court and whether jury trial is available; the jury-trial threshold is offences punishable by two years' imprisonment or more. Section 9 of the Crimes Act preserves the rule that no one may be convicted of an offence at common law, so offences must be statutory. Sentencing is governed by the purposes and principles in the Sentencing Act 2002, including a statutory hierarchy that requires the least restrictive outcome appropriate.

Adversarial code with jury trial and expanded political offences

The 2001 Código Procesal Penal is adversarial and unusually retains jury trial for serious offences. Since 2018, however, new statutes on treason, cybercrime and terrorism financing have been applied to protest and journalism, and the UN experts group has documented systematic due-process violations.

The formal code offers substantial protections that are not reliably observed in politically sensitive cases. Document every procedural violation contemporaneously, since the record matters for later international petitions rather than domestic appeal.

Code pénal 1961 as amended, with slavery expressly criminalised since 2003

The Code pénal, as amended, criminalises slavery following the 2003 amendment — the provision applied in the landmark ECOWAS Court decision in Hadijatou Mani v Niger. The death penalty remains in law under a long moratorium.

Hadijatou Mani v Niger is the most important human rights judgment involving Niger: the ECOWAS Court of Justice held in 2008 that Niger had failed to protect the applicant from slavery despite having criminalised it in 2003, and awarded damages. The case established that ECOWAS member states can be held liable before the community court for failing to enforce their own criminal law against traditional slavery.

Three penal regimes: Criminal Code in the south, Penal Code in the north, Sharia codes in twelve states

There is no single Nigerian criminal code. The Criminal Code Act governs the southern states, the Penal Code Act the northern states, and twelve northern states additionally apply Sharia Penal Codes to Muslims. The Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015 unified federal procedure and abolished holding charges.

Substantive criminal law in Nigeria is territorial and tripartite. The Criminal Code Act (a Queensland-derived code) applies in the south; the Penal Code Act (Sudanese-derived, itself from the Indian Penal Code) applies in the north. From 2000 twelve states enacted Sharia Penal Codes applying hadd punishments to Muslims, including amputation and stoning; the death sentences imposed in the early cases were overturned or not carried out, and no hadd amputation has been judicially confirmed on appeal, but the codes remain on the books. The Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015 is the major procedural reform: it applies to federal courts and the FCT, mandates monthly inspection of detention facilities by magistrates, requires that arrests not be made in lieu of a suspect, and abolished the 'holding charge' practice. Many states have enacted their own ACJ laws mirroring it.

Capital punishment, political prison camps and no independent defence

The Criminal Law provides for the death penalty for a range of offences including those framed as political. UN bodies have found a system of political prison camps operating outside any judicial process.

The published procedure law contains provisions on defence and appeal, but the Commission of Inquiry concluded that political cases are handled administratively by security agencies with no trial at all, and that camp detention extends to family members under a guilt-by-association practice. There is no independent bar, and defence counsel is state-assigned where it exists. The Commission found that these acts constitute crimes against humanity, and the Security Council has been urged to refer the situation to the International Criminal Court.

The Criminal Code with prosecutor-led investigation after the 2010 reform

The Criminal Code and the 2010 Criminal Procedure Act govern offences and process, transferring the investigation from investigating judges to public prosecutors. Plea bargaining and diversion are available.

Special investigative measures require judicial authorisation, and unlawfully obtained evidence has been a recurring litigation issue.

The 2005 Penal Code, lay judges and a 21-year maximum

The Penal Code of 2005 (in force 2015) governs criminal law, with lay judges sitting alongside professionals. The ordinary maximum sentence is 21 years, extendable by preventive detention (forvaring).

Norway's emphasis on rehabilitation and its low maximum term draw international attention, but forvaring can in practice extend detention well beyond 21 years.

A 2018 penal code replacing the 1974 statute

Royal Decree 7 of 2018 issued a new Penal Code, modernising the 1974 code while retaining sharia-derived offences and penalties in some areas.

The 2018 code restructured offences and penalties and increased sentences for some public order and state security offences, so it was not straightforwardly liberalising. Provisions on insulting the Sultan, damaging national unity and blasphemy remain and are used. The 2011 cybercrime law covers online content broadly. Alcohol is available under licence to non-Muslims. Oman abolished the death penalty in practice for most offences and executions are extremely rare, which distinguishes it from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

1860 Penal Code overlaid by the Hudood Ordinances and anti-terrorism courts

The Pakistan Penal Code 1860 and Criminal Procedure Code 1898 remain the base. The 1979 Hudood Ordinances added offences drawn from Islamic law, and Anti-Terrorism Courts operate under a separate 1997 statute.

Qisas and diyat provisions allow compounding of homicide by the victim's heirs, which has attracted criticism in honour-killing cases and was narrowed by a 2016 amendment. Blasphemy provisions in sections 295-298 carry severe penalties including death and are highly consequential. The Women's Protection Act 2006 moved rape from the Zina Ordinance back to the Penal Code. PECA 2016 is the main instrument in online speech cases and has been repeatedly amended.

Recodified Penal Code in PNC title 17 on a US model

Offences and sentencing are set out in title 17 of the Palau National Code, substantially recodified in 2014 on a United States model, and prosecuted by the Attorney General.

Title 17 was comprehensively recodified in 2014, replacing accumulated Trust Territory era provisions with a graded modern penal code including codified culpability standards, offence classes and structured sentencing, drawing on the US Model Penal Code. Article IV of the Constitution guarantees due process, counsel, protection against self-incrimination and freedom from unreasonable search, and Palauan courts draw on United States authority in construing them. There is no death penalty. Prosecution is conducted by the Office of the Attorney General, and the Public Defender provides representation, though capacity is limited. Environmental and fisheries offences carry unusual prominence: illegal fishing within the Palau National Marine Sanctuary attracts substantial penalties and vessel forfeiture, and enforcement is a genuine priority rather than a formality.

Two penal codes, plus Israeli military law in much of the West Bank

The West Bank applies the Jordanian Penal Code of 1960; Gaza applies the Mandate-era Criminal Code Ordinance of 1936. Palestinians in Areas B and C are also subject to Israeli military orders.

The failure to enact a unified penal code is one of the clearest illustrations of the fragmentation: the same conduct is prosecuted under a 1960 Jordanian statute in Ramallah and a 1936 British ordinance in Gaza. The 2001 procedure law applies in both nominally. Overlaying this, Israeli military courts operating under Military Order 1651 try Palestinian residents of the West Bank for security and public order offences, with conviction rates and procedural standards documented critically by Israeli and international human rights organisations. A complete answer on Palestinian criminal law has to describe all three systems.

Accusatorial system completed nationwide in 2016

Panama moved from an inquisitorial to an accusatorial oral process under the 2008 Criminal Procedure Code, rolled out by judicial district and completed in 2016. The Ministerio Público investigates and prosecutes; garantías judges supervise the investigation.

Foreign nationals are entitled to consular notification and interpretation. The Instituto de Defensa Pública provides free defence, and duty counsel attends the first hearing.

Criminal Code Act 1974 with the death penalty abolished in 2022

A codified criminal law in the Queensland Griffith Code tradition, the Criminal Code Act 1974, prosecuted by the Public Prosecutor. Parliament abolished the death penalty in January 2022.

The Code descends from the Queensland Criminal Code, so its structure will be familiar to Australian practitioners, but it has been amended locally in significant ways — including on sorcery-related killings, where the Sorcery Act was repealed in 2013 to remove the defence of belief in sorcery. The death penalty remained on the books unused for decades and was formally abolished in 2022. Serious offences are tried in the National Court without a jury; the judge sits alone, which distinguishes PNG from Fiji's assessor model and from Australia. Village Courts exercise limited criminal jurisdiction over customary matters and impose compensation orders, and their reach into criminal matters is far wider in practice than the statute suggests.

1997 Código Penal with adversarial procedure under Ley 1286

The Código Penal of 1997 and the Código Procesal Penal (Ley 1286/1998) established an accusatorial oral system with the Ministerio Público directing investigation and guarantee judges supervising. The codes drew heavily on German doctrine through the influence of Paraguayan scholars trained in that tradition.

The three-year global maximum for criminal proceedings is a notable structural safeguard: expiry results in extinction of the criminal action, which places real pressure on prosecutors to conclude cases. Paraguayan criminal doctrine is unusually German-influenced for the region, reflected in the Penal Code's treatment of culpability and the theory of the offence.

2004 Código Procesal Penal introduced adversarial oral trials

Decreto Legislativo 957 enacted the 2004 Código Procesal Penal, phased in across judicial districts to replace inquisitorial procedure with an adversarial model led by the Ministerio Público. Investigation judges control guarantees, and the code provides for plea agreements (terminación anticipada) and effective-collaboration deals used prominently in major corruption cases.

Effective collaboration agreements under the 2004 code became central to Peru's large corruption investigations, allowing sentence reductions in exchange for verifiable information, and drove the prosecution of senior political figures. The extended 15-day detention window for a defined list of grave offences is set by the Constitution itself, not merely by statute.

Revised Penal Code with the death penalty abolished and criminal libel retained

The Revised Penal Code of 1930 remains the base statute, supplemented by special penal laws. Capital punishment was abolished in 2006, and libel remains a criminal offence, extended online by the Cybercrime Prevention Act.

Reclusion perpetua replaced death as the maximum penalty. The Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act carries life imprisonment for trafficking, and the chain-of-custody requirements in section 21 are strictly construed, so procedural failures by police frequently produce acquittals. Cyberlibel carries a higher penalty than print libel and a longer prescriptive period, and remains a live risk for publishers. The Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 permits detention up to twenty-four days on authorisation of the Anti-Terrorism Council, and the Supreme Court struck parts of it down in 2021 while sustaining the core. The Philippines withdrew from the Rome Statute in 2019, though the ICC has continued its investigation into the drug war killings.

1997 Penal Code with a 48-hour limit on pre-charge detention

The Penal Code and Code of Criminal Procedure of 1997 govern offences and process. A detained person must be released or brought before a court within 48 hours, and the court must decide on pre-trial detention within a further 24 hours.

Ask for a defence lawyer at the outset: statements made in the first interview are frequently the decisive evidence, and appointed counsel is available where means are insufficient.

The Penal Code, prosecutor-led investigation and decriminalised drug use

The Penal Code and Code of Criminal Procedure govern offences and process, with the Public Prosecution Service directing the inquiry and an investigating judge safeguarding rights. Portugal is internationally known for treating personal drug use as an administrative matter.

Because life sentences are unconstitutional, extradition and mutual-assistance requests may require assurances from the requesting state.

A codified penal code retaining sharia offences for Muslims

The Penal Code of 2004 codifies most offences but preserves hudud and qisas penalties for Muslims in defined categories.

The Penal Code's dual structure means the applicable penalty for some offences depends on the religion of the accused, which is unusual among codified systems and material to any comparative analysis. The 2014 cybercrime law is broadly drafted, covering content that damages social values or insults the state, and is the provision most likely to catch foreign residents unawares. Alcohol is available under licence but public intoxication is an offence, and the practical enforcement picture around morality offences is more restrictive than the code alone suggests.

Received French criminal law, partially recodified

The Penal Code descends from the French code of 1810 as received and amended, with modern statutes layered on for terrorism, corruption and money laundering. Recodification has been announced repeatedly without a consolidated replacement in force.

Because no consolidated modern penal code has replaced the received text, Congolese criminal practice depends heavily on locating the correct amending statute — a recurring difficulty that AfricanLII's gazette archive partly addresses.

The 2014 codes with a preliminary chamber filter

New criminal and procedure codes entered force in 2014, introducing the preliminary chamber judge who screens the legality of the indictment and evidence before trial. Police custody is limited to 24 hours and pre-trial arrest requires a judge of rights and freedoms.

Statute of limitation rules were thrown into disorder by the 2018 and 2022 Constitutional Court rulings on interruption, and thousands of cases were closed as time-barred before Parliament repaired the text.

The 1996 code with a 48-hour detention limit and wartime offences

The Criminal Code of 1996 and the 2001 Code of Criminal Procedure apply. Detention without a court decision is limited to 48 hours, and since 2022 new offences cover discrediting the armed forces and dissemination of knowingly false information about them.

Acquittal rates in ordinary criminal cases are below one percent, so defence work concentrates on the pre-trial stage and on the qualification of the offence rather than on trial outcomes.

The 2018 Penal Code, with genocide offences and abolished capital punishment

Law 68/2018 determines offences and penalties, having replaced the 2012 code. Rwanda abolished the death penalty in 2007, replacing it with life imprisonment in special conditions, which was itself a precondition for receiving transfers from the ICTR.

The abolition of capital punishment in 2007 was strategically as well as morally significant: it removed the obstacle to European states and the ICTR transferring genocide suspects to Rwanda for trial. The gacaca courts, which tried over a million genocide cases between 2005 and 2012 using lay judges and community participation, were closed in 2012 and are now of historical rather than current jurisdiction.

Offences Against the Person Act with federal criminal jurisdiction

Criminal law is federal and rests on the Offences Against the Person Act, the Larceny Act and the Drugs (Prevention and Abatement of the Misuse and Abuse of Drugs) Act. Indictable matters are tried in the High Court before a jury in either island, and summary matters before a magistrate. The Director of Public Prosecutions conducts prosecutions for the federation as a whole.

Criminal law is one of the areas reserved to the federal Parliament, so unlike land or local taxation there is no Nevisian divergence to check. The death penalty remains available for murder and Saint Kitts and Nevis carried out the region's most recent execution in 2008, which makes the Privy Council jurisprudence on delay and mandatory sentencing of continuing practical relevance here.

Criminal Code 2004 consolidating offences and procedure

The Criminal Code 2004 is a full consolidation covering both substantive offences and much of criminal procedure, replacing a patchwork of earlier acts. Indictable matters are tried in the High Court with a jury; summary matters are dealt with in the District Court before a magistrate. The Director of Public Prosecutions has constitutional independence in the conduct of prosecutions.

Because the Criminal Code codifies procedure as well as offences, practitioners should work from the Code rather than importing English criminal procedure, which diverges on committal and on the treatment of alternative verdicts. Saint Lucia retains the death penalty for murder in law, but following CCJ and earlier Privy Council authority a mandatory sentence is unconstitutional and sentencing discretion must be exercised.

Criminal Code with jury trial in the High Court

The Criminal Code contains the substantive offences, supported by the Criminal Procedure Code, the Drugs (Prevention of Misuse) Act and the Proceeds of Crime Act. Indictable matters are tried in the High Court before a jury and summary matters before a magistrate in Kingstown or on circuit. The Director of Public Prosecutions conducts prosecutions independently under the Constitution.

Capital punishment remains in the Criminal Code for murder but has not been carried out since 1995, and the Privy Council authority on delay and on mandatory death sentences applies with full force given the retained appeal. Cannabis was partly decriminalised for medical and religious use under the Medicinal Cannabis Industry Act, which sits awkwardly alongside the unamended Drugs Act and requires care in advising.

Crimes Act 2013 replacing the 1961 Ordinance

Offences are codified in the Crimes Act 2013, which replaced the Crimes Ordinance 1961, with procedure under the Criminal Procedure Act 2016. There is no death penalty.

The Crimes Act 2013 was a full modernisation drawing on New Zealand drafting, updating sexual offences, removing outdated provisions and restating fault elements. Serious matters are tried in the Supreme Court by judge alone. Samoa formally abolished the death penalty in 2004. Custom retains a sentencing role through the practice of ifoga, a formal ceremonial apology between families, which courts may take into account in mitigation — the Court of Appeal has accepted its relevance while cautioning that it cannot displace punishment for serious violence. The Community Justice Act supports non-custodial supervision options.

The 1974 Criminal Code applied by a largely non-national judiciary

The Codice penale of 1974 and its procedural companion govern criminal matters, heard by the Tribunale Unico. Most judges are foreign nationals, a deliberate design to secure impartiality in a very small community.

Money-laundering and tax-cooperation reforms after 2009 rebuilt San Marino's financial crime framework and mutual legal assistance practice.

Uncodified hudud and qisas alongside codified regulatory offences

There is no general penal code. Serious offences are handled through the sharia categories of hudud, qisas and ta'zir, while specific statutes codify offences such as cybercrime, trafficking and narcotics.

The absence of a general penal code is the defining structural fact and it has direct practical consequences: for offences in the ta'zir category the judge determines both the characterisation and the sentence, so outcomes are less predictable than in a codified system and comparisons with sentencing ranges elsewhere do not transfer. Qisas and diyya give the victim's family a formal role in the disposal of homicide and serious assault cases, including the power to pardon, which has no analogue in most systems. The Specialised Criminal Court's jurisdiction over broadly drafted terrorism and state security offences is the subject of sustained international criticism and any account of Saudi criminal justice that omits it is incomplete.

Code pénal with the death penalty abolished in 2004 and universal jurisdiction exercised

Senegal abolished the death penalty in 2004. It hosted the Extraordinary African Chambers, which convicted Chad's Hissène Habré of crimes against humanity in 2016 — the first trial of a former African head of state by another African state's courts.

The Habré trial is Senegal's principal contribution to international criminal law. After the ICJ held in Belgium v Senegal that Senegal was obliged to prosecute or extradite, Senegal amended its law and, under an African Union mandate, created the Extraordinary African Chambers within its own courts. Habré was convicted in 2016 and the conviction upheld on appeal in 2017.

The Criminal Code with prosecutor-led investigation and plea agreements

The Criminal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code govern offences and process. The 2011 procedural code shifted the investigation to the public prosecutor, and negotiated guilty pleas are widely used.

Life imprisonment was introduced in 2019 for certain aggravated offences, with parole excluded for some of them.

Penal Code offences with English procedure, no death penalty, and piracy jurisdiction

The Penal Code (Cap 158) is English-derived, applied through adversarial procedure under the Criminal Procedure Code. The death penalty was abolished by the 1993 Constitution. Seychelles took universal jurisdiction over Somali piracy in the 2010s, prosecuting and imprisoning suspects transferred by naval forces.

Seychelles' piracy prosecutions are the notable feature: a microstate assumed universal jurisdiction and built dedicated court and prison capacity with international support, producing one of the largest bodies of modern piracy case law anywhere.

Received English common law and colonial statutes, with the death penalty abolished in 2021

Sierra Leone has no consolidated criminal code; offences derive from received English common law, the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 and later local statutes. The Abolition of the Death Penalty Act 2021 removed capital punishment entirely, replacing it with a minimum thirty-year term or life imprisonment.

Substantive criminal law rests on received English common law as at the reception date, together with imported nineteenth-century statutes such as the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 and the Larceny Act 1916, supplemented by modern local legislation on sexual offences, anti-corruption and cybercrime. The absence of a code makes the law hard to locate, a problem the Law Reform Commission has repeatedly flagged. The landmark reform is the Abolition of the Death Penalty Act 2021, which abolished capital punishment for all offences including treason and murder — placing Sierra Leone among the minority of fully abolitionist African states — with courts directed to impose a minimum of thirty years or life for the affected offences. The Sexual Offences Act 2012, amended in 2019, sets the age of consent at 18 and prescribes heavy minimum sentences for rape and sexual penetration of a child. The Criminal Procedure Act 1965 governs process, and the 2020 repeal of the seditious libel provisions of the Public Order Act 1965 ended criminal defamation.

Penal Code offences, mandatory sentences and judicial corporal punishment

The Penal Code, inherited from India and heavily revised in 2019, is the core statute. Singapore retains the death penalty for murder and serious drug trafficking, mandatory minimum sentences and caning for a defined list of offences.

The Misuse of Drugs Act presumes trafficking above threshold quantities and carries a mandatory death sentence for the largest, subject since 2012 to a narrow alternative of life imprisonment with caning where the accused was only a courier and cooperated substantively or has a mental disability. Caning is mandatory for offences including rape, robbery and certain immigration breaches, and is not imposed on women or men over fifty. The 2019 review repealed marital immunity for rape and modernised sexual offences. Accused persons have no automatic right to counsel at the earliest stages of police investigation, which is a recurring point of criticism.

2005 Criminal Code with a specialised anti-corruption court

The Criminal Code of 2005 introduced a three-strikes rule for repeat serious offenders. Corruption, organised crime and offences by senior officials are tried by the Specialised Criminal Court in Pezinok, and a contested 2024 amendment reduced several penalties and abolished the Special Prosecutor's Office.

The 2024 amendment changed limitation periods and thresholds, so the version of the Code in force at the time of the alleged act must be checked before advising on exposure.

The Criminal Code with prosecutor-led investigation and settlement options

The Criminal Code and Criminal Procedure Act govern offences and process, with a state prosecutor directing investigation and an investigating judge authorising coercive measures. Diversion and settlement are available for lesser offences.

Legal persons are criminally liable under a separate act, and compliance failures can found corporate liability.

Penal Code with the Local Courts applying custom below it

A colonial-era Penal Code as amended, with the Criminal Procedure Code governing process, prosecuted by the Director of Public Prosecutions. The death penalty has been abolished.

The Penal Code follows the English colonial model and retains its structure, but the Sexual Offences amendment of 2016 was a substantial modernisation: it redefined rape in gender-neutral terms, removed the marital rape immunity and created new offences for offences against children. Serious matters are tried in the High Court by judge alone. Local Courts apply custom and can deal with minor matters, and customary compensation frequently runs alongside a criminal sentence — courts may take compensation into account in mitigation, which is a meaningful difference from Australian sentencing practice.

A 1962 Italian-derived penal code, military courts, and al-Shabaab's parallel courts

The Penal Code of 1962 remains the formal criminal law. Enforcement runs through weak civilian courts, military courts that try terrorism cases and impose death sentences, and in areas outside government control al-Shabaab's own courts.

The 1962 code is a competent Italian-derived instrument and is still cited, but describing Somali criminal law by reference to it alone would be badly misleading. Terrorism and many serious cases are tried by military courts whose jurisdiction over civilians has been criticised by UN human-rights bodies, with limited defence rights and death sentences carried out. In territory it controls, al-Shabaab operates courts applying its own interpretation of sharia, imposing amputations and executions, and those courts are used even by people outside its territory for civil and commercial matters because they are perceived as quick and enforceable — a point that says more about the state courts than about the group. Piracy prosecutions were historically transferred to Kenya, Seychelles and Somali regional courts under international arrangements. Formal criminal justice capacity varies enormously by region.

Criminal Procedure Act 51 of 1977, no death penalty, and prescribed minimum sentences

Substantive criminal law remains largely Roman-Dutch common law — murder, robbery, rape and fraud are common-law crimes — while procedure is codified in the Criminal Procedure Act 51 of 1977. Capital punishment was struck down as unconstitutional in S v Makwanyane in 1995. Sentencing is heavily shaped by the prescribed minimums in Act 105 of 1997, which a court may depart from only for substantial and compelling circumstances.

Two features distinguish South African criminal justice. First, the Bill of Rights applies directly to the process: s 35 guarantees the presumption of innocence, the right to remain silent and a trial within a reasonable time, and evidence obtained unconstitutionally is excluded where admission would render the trial unfair or be detrimental to the administration of justice. Second, the minimum-sentence regime coexists with a strong appellate tradition of individualised sentencing, so the 'substantial and compelling circumstances' escape clause carries a large and still-developing body of case law.

Death penalty retained in law but unused since 1997

The Criminal Act retains capital punishment, but no execution has been carried out since December 1997, making Korea abolitionist in practice. Jury-style participation exists only in an advisory form.

Citizen participation trials, available for serious offences at the defendant's request, produce a verdict that the judge may depart from with reasons, so it is advisory rather than binding. The 2020-2021 reforms transferred primary investigative authority from the prosecution to the police for most offences and created a separate agency for senior-official corruption, materially reducing prosecutorial control. Defence access to counsel applies from arrest, and interrogation recording is standard.

A 2008 penal code, with a hybrid court for conflict crimes still not established

The Penal Code Act 2008 and Code of Criminal Procedure 2008 govern. Chapter V of the 2018 peace agreement provided for a Hybrid Court for South Sudan with the African Union, which has not been established.

The 2008 codes are common-law derived and conventional in structure, retaining the death penalty, which South Sudan continues to apply. The significant unfinished business is accountability for conflict-related crimes. Chapter V of the 2018 agreement committed the parties to three mechanisms — a Hybrid Court to be established with the African Union, a Commission for Truth, Reconciliation and Healing, and a Compensation and Reparation Authority — and the Hybrid Court in particular has not been set up despite repeated commitments, while extensive documentation of atrocities by UN and AU bodies has accumulated. Customary courts handle a large volume of minor criminal matters, and their jurisdiction over serious offences is formally excluded but practically blurred where statutory courts are absent. Prison and detention conditions and the availability of defence counsel are documented as severely inadequate.

The Penal Code with investigating judges and a limited jury

Substantive offences are codified in the 1995 Penal Code, while procedure follows the Criminal Procedure Act. Investigations are supervised by an investigating judge, and a jury sits only for a defined list of serious offences.

Private parties can act as accusers alongside the prosecutor, which materially shapes the conduct of Spanish criminal proceedings.

An 1883 Penal Code, with the PTA still operating alongside it

The Penal Code of 1883 and the Code of Criminal Procedure Act of 1979 govern ordinary crime. Running alongside them is the Prevention of Terrorism Act 1979, which permits prolonged administrative detention and has been the subject of sustained international criticism and repeated, unfulfilled repeal promises. Both regimes are live law.

Magistrates' Courts try summary offences; the High Court tries indictable offences, with a jury in some cases. The Attorney-General controls indictments in the High Court. The death penalty remains on the statute book but has not been carried out since 1976. The PTA allows detention orders and admits confessions to police, unlike ordinary criminal procedure. Whether a matter is charged under the ordinary Code or the PTA changes the detention, bail and evidence rules fundamentally — establish which applies first. Bail is governed by the Bail Act 1997, but is excluded or restricted for many PTA and drug offences.

The 1991 Criminal Act, substantially amended in 2020, in a context of mass atrocity

The Criminal Act 1991 introduced hudud punishments and the public-order offences that defined the Bashir era. The 2020 amendments repealed apostasy, restricted flogging and criminalised FGM, but the current conflict features large-scale atrocity crimes.

Two things must be stated together. The 1991 Act is an Islamised penal code providing hudud punishments including amputation and stoning, and it carried broad public-order offences used extensively against women; the 2020 reforms narrowed that considerably, repealing apostasy and abolishing flogging for most offences. Separately and more gravely, the ICC has jurisdiction over Darfur through Security Council referral, has convicted Ali Kushayb, and has outstanding warrants including for Omar al-Bashir on genocide charges; the current SAF-RSF war has generated new ICC investigation into Darfur and extensive documentation of ethnically targeted mass killing and sexual violence. Domestic criminal justice capacity in the conflict zones is not functioning in any verifiable way, so this entry does not describe an operating enforcement system.

Wetboek van Strafrecht with the December murders trial concluded

Criminal law follows the Wetboek van Strafrecht and procedure the Wetboek van Strafvordering, both Dutch in origin, with investigation led by the Openbaar Ministerie and trial before professional judges rather than juries. In 2023 the Hof van Justitie upheld the conviction of former President Desi Bouterse for the 1982 December murders, ending a four-decade process.

The December murders prosecution is the defining case of Surinamese criminal justice: a 2012 amendment to the amnesty law sought to halt it, the court proceeded regardless, and the conviction was ultimately upheld on appeal in December 2023. Because there is no jury, serious cases are decided by professional judges applying the Dutch-derived code, and Dutch criminal-law doctrine remains a significant interpretive source.

The Criminal Code (Brottsbalken) with lay judges

Criminal law is codified in the Brottsbalken. Lay judges (nämndemän) sit with a professional judge in the District Courts, and prosecutions are run by the independent Prosecution Authority.

A life sentence in Sweden is typically reviewed and converted to a determinate term, so it rarely means detention for the offender's whole life.

A unified federal Criminal Procedure Code since 2011, applied by cantonal courts

Switzerland has a single Criminal Code and, since 1 January 2011, a unified Code of Criminal Procedure replacing 26 separate cantonal codes. Prosecution is led by cantonal or federal public prosecutors, and most cases are tried by cantonal courts; the prosecutor can dispose of minor cases by a summary penalty order.

The Strafbefehl disposes of the large majority of cases without trial, so the short window to object is critical in practice. Serious federal crimes (such as certain economic and organised-crime cases) go to the Federal Criminal Court in Bellinzona.

The Penal Code 1949, with exceptional and military courts alongside it

The Penal Code of 1949 is the general statute. Exceptional jurisdictions — the Counter-Terrorism Court established in 2012, military field courts and military courts trying civilians — have handled a large share of serious cases.

The 1949 code follows the French model. The features that dominate any honest account are the exceptional jurisdictions: the Counter-Terrorism Court created in 2012 with very broad offence definitions and abbreviated procedure, the military field courts that operated with almost no procedural protection, and the documented practice of enforced disappearance and death in custody recorded by the UN Commission of Inquiry and the Independent Institution on Missing Persons established by the General Assembly in 2023. Abolition of the field courts was announced in the transitional period, and accountability mechanisms are actively developing.

Código Penal 2012 with no death penalty and decriminalised same-sex conduct

The Código Penal (Lei 6/2012) replaced the 1886 Portuguese code, modernising offences and confirming the decriminalisation of same-sex sexual conduct. The death penalty was abolished at independence in 1975.

The 2012 code brought the criminal law into the modern era after 126 years of the Portuguese 1886 text, and its express decriminalisation removed a provision that had in practice long gone unenforced.

Death penalty under an indefinite moratorium since 2004

Capital punishment remains in the Criminal Code but a moratorium has been in force since 2004 and no executions have been carried out. Sentences are commuted to long imprisonment.

A working group has considered full abolition for years without a final decision, so the formal position remains suspension rather than repeal. Torture was made a distinct offence in 2012 following treaty-body pressure, but the Committee against Torture has continued to record concerns about incommunicado detention and access to counsel. Extremism and terrorism offences are drawn broadly and have been used against political and religious activity, which is the dominant criminal-justice concern reported by international bodies.

The Penal Code with separate Zanzibari criminal law

The Penal Code (Cap 16) applies on the mainland; Zanzibar has its own penal legislation. The death penalty remains lawful but has not been carried out for decades, and the Court of Appeal upheld its constitutionality in Mbushuu.

Two features distinguish Tanzanian criminal law: the statutory exclusion of bail for a list of offences, which the courts have upheld against constitutional challenge, and the parallel Zanzibari penal legislation, which means the same conduct can attract different treatment depending on which part of the union it occurs in.

Codified Criminal Code with lese-majeste and severe narcotics penalties

The Criminal Code of 1956 defines offences and penalties. The death penalty remains for murder and major drug offences though executions are rare, and section 112 lese-majeste prosecutions carry three to fifteen years per count.

The 2021 Narcotics Code consolidated drug law and shifted emphasis toward treatment for users, and cannabis was removed from the narcotics list in 2022, creating a regulatory gap that successive governments have moved to close. Bail is discretionary and refusals are common in political cases, so pre-trial detention operates as a significant sanction in itself. Suspects have a right to counsel and to have a lawyer present during interrogation, and confessions obtained by inducement are inadmissible. Private persons may initiate criminal prosecutions directly, which makes criminal defamation a practical litigation risk for journalists and researchers.

Penal Code with the death penalty reserved for the worst cases

The Penal Code, Chap. 84 sets out the substantive offences, with procedure in the Criminal Procedure Code. Following Privy Council authority, the mandatory death penalty was held unconstitutional and the Bahamian legislature responded in 2011 by defining categories of murder for which the death penalty remains available, though no execution has been carried out since 2000. Prosecutions are conducted by the Office of the Attorney General and the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Sentencing in murder cases now requires the court to consider whether the case falls within the statutory categories and then to conduct an individualised assessment, so mitigation evidence is central where it was once irrelevant. The Bail Act has been amended repeatedly to restrict bail for serious firearm and drug offences, and those restrictions are themselves a recurring subject of constitutional challenge.

A 2009 Penal Code replacing transitional Indonesian and UNTAET law

The Penal Code of 2009 is the first wholly Timorese criminal code. It replaced a patchwork of Indonesian criminal law and UNTAET-era regulations that had applied during the transitional administration, and it is applied alongside a separate Criminal Procedure Code.

Investigations are directed by the Public Prosecution Service, which has a monopoly on bringing serious charges. The Penal Code abolished the death penalty in line with the constitutional prohibition, and the maximum penalty is a determinate prison term. Domestic violence is dealt with under a dedicated statute, the Law Against Domestic Violence of 2010, which treats it as a public crime that can be prosecuted without a complaint from the victim — a significant departure from the earlier position.

Code pénal 2015 with the death penalty abolished in 2009

Loi n° 2015-010 recodified criminal law. Togo abolished the death penalty in 2009. A 2018 cybersecurity law and a 2019 law on the press and communication have been criticised for restricting expression.

Togo abolished capital punishment in 2009 by a dedicated statute rather than as part of recodification. The contested area since has been speech: the 2018 cybersecurity law criminalises the publication of false information online, and journalists and activists have been prosecuted under it, drawing criticism from ECOWAS bodies and press freedom organisations.

Criminal Offences Act with the death penalty retained in law

Offences are set out in the Criminal Offences Act with procedure under the Criminal Offences (Procedure) provisions and the Magistrates' Courts Act. The death penalty remains on the statute book but is long unused.

The Criminal Offences Act is a colonial-style code, amended over time, and it retains capital punishment for murder and treason. Tonga is therefore formally a retentionist state, but it is abolitionist in practice: no execution has been carried out for decades and sentences are commuted, so describing Tonga as having abolished the death penalty is wrong, while describing executions as a live risk is equally misleading. Trials in the Supreme Court may be by judge alone or with a jury in certain cases, which is unusual in the region where jury trial has largely disappeared.

Abolition of preliminary inquiries and a move to judge-alone trials

The core offences sit in the Offences Against the Person Act and the Criminal Law Act, with procedure in the Criminal Procedure Act and the Indictable Proceedings Act 2011. The Miscellaneous Provisions (Trial by Judge Alone) Act 2017 allows an accused to elect trial by judge without a jury, and the Administration of Justice (Indictable Proceedings) Act replaced the traditional preliminary inquiry with a sufficiency hearing to cut delay. Prosecutions are brought by the Director of Public Prosecutions.

The abolition of the preliminary inquiry was aimed squarely at the backlog, because the old process re-heard the prosecution case before a magistrate long before trial. The judge-alone option is used most where pre-trial publicity or the complexity of documentary evidence makes a jury trial unattractive to the defence.

A 1913 penal code with a 2016 custody reform and abolitionist trajectory

The Penal Code dates to 1913 with continuous amendment. Law 2016-5 introduced the right to counsel during police custody, and no execution has been carried out since 1991.

Law 2016-5 is the significant modern reform because it cut police custody from six days to 48 hours and admitted counsel from the outset, addressing the mechanism that had produced most documented ill-treatment. Article 230 criminalising same-sex conduct and Article 226 on public indecency remain in force and are actively used, and anal examinations in such cases have been condemned by UN bodies. Decree-Law 2022-54 on cybercrime, enacted after the constitutional change, carries heavy penalties for spreading false information and has been applied to speech about officials, which is now the leading concern in Tunisian criminal practice. The 2015 terrorism law created a specialised judicial pole and extended custody, and it coexists uneasily with the 2016 reform.

The 2004 Penal Code drawn on the German model

The Turkish Penal Code No. 5237 of 2004 replaced the 1926 code, which had itself been adapted from the Italian Zanardelli code. The Code of Criminal Procedure No. 5271 governs investigation and trial. The death penalty was fully abolished in 2004.

The 2004 Penal Code was drafted with the German code as its principal model and was part of the EU accession reform package. Aggravated life imprisonment is the maximum penalty following abolition of capital punishment. Investigations are led by public prosecutors, with detention subject to judicial review. Two areas draw sustained international attention: the anti-terror legislation, which is broadly drawn, and Article 299 on insulting the President together with Article 301 on denigrating the Turkish nation, both of which have generated significant Strasbourg case law on freedom of expression.

Death penalty abolished in 1999, but consensual same-sex conduct still criminal

Turkmenistan abolished capital punishment in 1999, among the earliest in the region. The Criminal Code nonetheless retains an offence of sodomy, criminalising consensual conduct between men.

Abolition of the death penalty was a genuine and early reform. Against that, the criminalisation of same-sex conduct, the use of vaguely defined offences against religious and political activity, and repeated findings of enforced disappearance in the prison system dominate international reporting. The UN Human Rights Committee and the Committee against Torture have documented incommunicado detention with no information given to families for years. Conscientious objection to military service is not recognised and results in prosecution.

Penal Code with the death penalty abolished

Offences are set out in the Penal Code with procedure under the Criminal Procedure Code, prosecuted by the Attorney General. The death penalty has been abolished, and Island Courts handle minor matters.

The Penal Code follows the standard colonial model inherited from the Gilbert and Ellice Islands administration, so it closely resembles Kiribati's. Serious matters are tried in the High Court by judge alone; Island Courts and Magistrates deal with the great majority of everyday offences, applying custom in some respects. Tuvalu has abolished the death penalty. Provisions criminalising consensual same-sex conduct remain in the Penal Code and have been the subject of repeated recommendations for repeal at the Universal Periodic Review, which Tuvalu has not accepted — a point that should be stated accurately rather than assumed to have been reformed.

The Penal Code Act with substantial constitutional litigation over its colonial provisions

The Penal Code Act (Cap 120) is the principal offence-creating statute. Courts have struck down several inherited provisions, including the offence of sedition and the mandatory death penalty in Kigula, and the Anti-Homosexuality Act 2023 has been the subject of constitutional challenge.

Kigula v Attorney General is the landmark: the Supreme Court held the mandatory death penalty unconstitutional while preserving the discretionary penalty, and required the resentencing of hundreds of prisoners. Ugandan criminal law is therefore a good illustration of a colonial code surviving in text while being reshaped by constitutional review — the same pattern as Kenya, but through a different court structure.

The 2012 procedure code, plus war crimes and collaboration offences

The Criminal Code of 2001 and the 2012 Criminal Procedure Code apply, the latter having introduced the investigating judge and a 72-hour detention limit. Since 2022 new offences on collaboration and unauthorised dissemination of troop information have been added.

Free legal aid is available at the point of detention through the regional centres, and the detainee register means counsel can verify where a person is held rather than relying on the police.