Forty Years of Criminal Law: Developments in Case Law Re The Requirement of Fault

Abstract

In the field of criminal law there is as yet no fully original Israeli code. The Penal Law, 1977, is a new version of the Criminal Code Ordinance, 1936, combined with the various amendments thereto introduced by the Knesset since the establishment of the State. Most legislative changes affect specific offences. The intervention of the Israeli legislator in the general part of the Law, has been most limited. The only context in which the Israeli legislator has laid down his own arrangements is in the application of the criminal law. Under the Criminal Code Ordinance (sections 6-7) its scope was territorial. However, in 1955 the Penal Law Revision (Offences Committed Abroad) Law, 1955 was passed by the Knesset, and this extended the provisions of the Ordinance to certain offences committed outside the territory of the State. In the course of the years, the extra-territorial scope of the criminal law has expanded.