Malum prohibitum (plural
mala prohibita, literal translation: "wrong [as or because] prohibited") is a
Latin phrase used in
lawLaw is a system of rules, usually enforced through a set of institutions. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a primary social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus ticket to trading on derivatives markets...
to refer to conduct that constitutes an unlawful act only by virtue of
statuteA statute is a formal written enactment of a legislative authority that governs a country, state, city, or county. Typically, statutes command or prohibit something, or declare policy. The word is often used to distinguish law made by legislative bodies from case law and the regulations issued by...
, as opposed to conduct evil in and of itself, or
malum in seMalum in se is a Latin phrase meaning wrong or evil in itself. This concept is a part of the value consensus model explanation of the origins of the criminal law. The phrase is used to refer to conduct assessed as inherently wrong by nature, independent of regulations governing the conduct...
. Conduct that was so clearly violative of society's standards for allowable conduct that it was illegal under English
common lawCommon law is law developed by judges through decisions of courts and similar tribunals , rather than through legislative statutes or executive action, and to corresponding legal systems that rely on precedential case law....
is usually regarded as "
malum in seMalum in se is a Latin phrase meaning wrong or evil in itself. This concept is a part of the value consensus model explanation of the origins of the criminal law. The phrase is used to refer to conduct assessed as inherently wrong by nature, independent of regulations governing the conduct...
".
Malum prohibitum (plural
mala prohibita, literal translation: "wrong [as or because] prohibited") is a
Latin phrase used in
lawLaw is a system of rules, usually enforced through a set of institutions. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a primary social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus ticket to trading on derivatives markets...
to refer to conduct that constitutes an unlawful act only by virtue of
statuteA statute is a formal written enactment of a legislative authority that governs a country, state, city, or county. Typically, statutes command or prohibit something, or declare policy. The word is often used to distinguish law made by legislative bodies from case law and the regulations issued by...
, as opposed to conduct evil in and of itself, or
malum in seMalum in se is a Latin phrase meaning wrong or evil in itself. This concept is a part of the value consensus model explanation of the origins of the criminal law. The phrase is used to refer to conduct assessed as inherently wrong by nature, independent of regulations governing the conduct...
. Conduct that was so clearly violative of society's standards for allowable conduct that it was illegal under English
common lawCommon law is law developed by judges through decisions of courts and similar tribunals , rather than through legislative statutes or executive action, and to corresponding legal systems that rely on precedential case law....
is usually regarded as "
malum in seMalum in se is a Latin phrase meaning wrong or evil in itself. This concept is a part of the value consensus model explanation of the origins of the criminal law. The phrase is used to refer to conduct assessed as inherently wrong by nature, independent of regulations governing the conduct...
". An offense that is
malum prohibitum, for example, may not appear on the face to directly violate
moral standardsMorality has three principal meanings.In its first, descriptive usage, morality means a code of conduct or belief concerning matters of what is moral or immoral...
. The distinction between these two cases is discussed in
State of Washington v. Thaddius X. Anderson (Supreme Court of the State of Washington, 67826-0, decided August 2000)
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=wa&vol=678260di1&searchval&invol=1:
Criminal offenses can be broken down into two general categories malum in se and malum prohibitum. The distinction between malum in se and malum prohibitum offenses is best characterized as follows: a malum in se offense is "naturally evil as adjudged by the sense of a civilized community," whereas a malum prohibitum offense is wrong only because a statute makes it so. State v. Horton, 139 N.C. 588, 51 S.E. 945, 946 (1905).
"Public welfare offenses" are a subset of malum prohibitum offenses as they are typically regulatory in nature and often "'result in no direct or immediate injury to person or property but merely create the danger or probability of it which the law seeks to minimize.'" Bash, 130 Wn.2d at 607 (quoting Morissette v. United States, 342 U.S. 246, 255-56, 72 S. Ct. 240, 96 L. Ed. 288 (1952)); see also State v. Carty, 27 Wn. App. 715, 717, 620 P.2d 137 (1980).
Some examples of
mala prohibita include parking violations, copyright violations, tax laws, cultural taboos, and doing certain things without a license.
See also
- Victimless crime (political philosophy)
The term victimless crime refers to infractions of criminal law without any identifiable evidence of an individual that has suffered damage in the infraction....
- Public order crime
In criminology public order crime is defined by Siegel as "...crime which involves acts that interfere with the operations of society and the ability of people to function efficiently", i.e. it is behaviour that has been labelled criminal because it is contrary to shared norms, social values, and...
- Laws without ethical content
A law without ethical content is one that does not proscribe or mandate an act because of the act's moral or ethical value, but for some other reason...