Substantive Criminal law comprises rights and wrongs in criminal law and rights and responsibilities in civil laws of any country. In criminal law, punishment for breaking the laws is also considered part and parcel of substantive criminal law. Although a country?s constitution defines the rights of citizens, substantive criminal law formalizes, concretizes and operationalizes these broad concepts for enhancing a just and democratic society free of oppression. Substantive Criminal Law is based on the tenets of natural justice, basic understanding of rights and wrongs as well as cultural and religious considerations.
Therefore, every society should have a fundamental understanding of the norms that need to be observed at all times. Human beings identify themselves through understanding and the thinking process, in comparison to animals. In the free world, substantive criminal law defines clearly what each one?s rights are and the measures taken when these rights are infringed upon or abused by other individuals, bodies and even the governments. In the instances where the state acts as a rogue abusing its citizens through oppressive and tyrannical behavior, human rights organizations use the substantive criminal law to address the abuses and excesses. Many human rights abuse cases by global organizations base their campaigns on substantive criminal laws as well as the United Nations Charters.
In the primitive, pre- industrial revolution societies, the law of the jungle guided the society as the basic premise was survival for the fittest at whatever cost. This culminated in major societal conflicts as there were no formalized conflict resolution mechanisms. Competition for natural resources, the feeling of being suffocated by the mightier as well as disagreements based in religion and race saw the rise to many bloody wars all over the world. The world is now free of the kind of conflicts that plagued the less developed societies in years past as a result of substantive criminal law. But the conflicts have not been totally wiped out. Human nature is such that some will transgress in spite of the laws. Some leading criminologists and psychologists have in the past attributed criminal behavior to hereditary traits triggered by other artificial substances such as drugs and alcohol.
Like in the third world, where the substantive criminal law is usually not observed, certain conflicts are exacerbated by the informal nature of conflict resolution. The proliferation of small arms in the third world plus lack of concrete legal systems has resulted in internecine wars, sometimes taking a tribal nature. The same applies to many post-Soviet Union emerging states that have a weak legal infrastructure.
In the Western world however, structures are in place and are reinforced by a solid legal framework guide by established and codified statutes. Substantive Criminal Law is also codified and formalized through written statutes which attorneys as well as paralegal operatives refer to in criminal proceeds and legal battles world over. The lawyers in these countries are aware of these statutes and refer to them during legal battles. Their clients? adversaries also use the same statutes to argue their cases in front of the presiding judges.
Source: http://www.freelance-writers.org/2012/07/how-substantive-criminal-law-is-helping-to-curb-conflict/
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