WHAT IS CRIMINAL LAW?
Criminal law is the discipline of law that defines which human acts that constitute injustice are defined as crimes, in which cases these acts are crimes, and what penalties should be applied when such crimes are committed. In summary, it can be said that the Criminal Code determines which acts are violations and the penalties for them. Criminal law is the branch of law that regulates criminal public acts and the sanctions to be applied to them. In order to understand the scope of criminal law, first of all, it is necessary to deal with the concepts of crime and punishment.
Crime;
It is human behavior that is regulated by law in order to establish social order and ensure its healthy continuation, and that leads to unlawfulness or dishonest behavior due to its regulation. Although all crimes include violation of rights, not every act that violates rights can be a crime. If the punishment is; It is a punishment applied for acts that are considered criminal by law.
Features of Criminal Law
The fact that the people who make up the society act according to the requirements of these behavioral standards is related to their moral development level. Only criminal law and all other legal norms oblige the state authority to impose sanctions for the opposite action. Legal norms depend on the power of the state to fulfill its duties to maintain social order. Criminal law requires more state intervention than any other branch of law, because only the state’s legal entity carries out the proposed sanctions.
Basic Feature;
This forces a state sanction for violating criminal law norms. Criminal law no. is an area of public law, and there is no equality between the state and the parties in the legal relationship. For example, it is the state’s responsibility to find and catch criminals. Criminal law should be used as a last resort and should be applied according to the principles of the rule of law. Therefore, the Penal Code is not a penal law.
The state cannot effectively fulfill its duty to provide social peace without the rules of criminal law. Only the state should resort to criminal law as a last resort and within the framework of the rule of law to establish social order.
General Provisions of Criminal Law
Criminal substantive law is also divided into two as general provisions of criminal law and special provisions of criminal law. The division of the provisions in the penal laws into two as general provisions and special provisions has worked in this distinction. Turkish Penal Code No. Law No. 5237 consists of two books: “General Provisions” (Article 1-75) and “Special Provisions” (Article 76-3 5).
Principles of Criminal Law
The most important basic principles of criminal law; legality, the principle of complete punishment, the principle of individuality of punishments, the principle of humanism, the principle of the rule of law.
prohibition of comparison
Article 2/3 of the TCK “No comparison can be made in the implementation of the provisions involving crime and punishment.” invited Under the relative prohibition, an act that is not expressly defined as a crime in the law cannot be punished as a misdemeanor, assuming that it is in some way similar to the act defined as a misdemeanor in the law. No matter how frightening and intolerable the act is in terms of social order, the perpetrator of the act cannot be punished according to Article 2(3) of the Turkish Penal Code, unless it is clearly stated in the law.
Principle of Certainty
According to Article 2(1) of the Turkish Penal Code, no one can be punished or put under security measures for an act that is not clearly considered a crime by law. In addition to the penalties, other penalties and security measures cannot be applied. and the security measures specified in the law.” The law should clearly determine the nature of the crime, the punishment to be given to committing the crime, the aggravating reasons, and the security measures. It is the duty of the legislator to implement this principle.