The declaratory power, in Scots law, is an unusual power held by the High Court of Justiciary, which enables it to declare behaviour to be criminal, even if that behaviour had not been previously defined as criminal activity.
This power has been used conservatively in the modern period, generally only in cases where an act is clearly comparable to an existing crime; it has, for example, been used to declare the selling of glue-sniffing kits criminal. As the specific boundaries of many offences are left somewhat loosely defined, it can be difficult to distinguish the application of the declaratory power from cases where the court interprets existing legislation to cover new situations.
Referencesedit
White & Willock, The Scottish Legal System, second edition. Butterworths, 1999.
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declaratory, power, declaratory, power, canadian, section, constitution, 1867, this, article, includes, list, references, related, reading, external, links, sources, remain, unclear, because, lacks, inline, citations, please, help, improve, this, article, intr. For the declaratory power in Canadian law see Section 92 10 of the Constitution Act 1867 This article includes a list of references related reading or external links but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations Please help improve this article by introducing more precise citations January 2012 Learn how and when to remove this message The declaratory power in Scots law is an unusual power held by the High Court of Justiciary which enables it to declare behaviour to be criminal even if that behaviour had not been previously defined as criminal activity This power has been used conservatively in the modern period generally only in cases where an act is clearly comparable to an existing crime it has for example been used to declare the selling of glue sniffing kits criminal As the specific boundaries of many offences are left somewhat loosely defined it can be difficult to distinguish the application of the declaratory power from cases where the court interprets existing legislation to cover new situations References editWhite amp Willock The Scottish Legal System second edition Butterworths 1999 nbsp nbsp This article related to law in Scotland is a stub You can help Wikipedia by expanding it vte Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Declaratory power amp oldid 1193269328, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
