Prosecution of repealed Acts

detective

Can a person be prosecuted under a repealed Act if the offence book place prior to the Act being repealed.

johnnyskeleton

Good question.

Usually yes, they can be prosecuted see:

http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/2005/en/act/pub/0023/sec0027.html#sec27

However, in sentencing the court can have regard to changes in the law. So if someone committed an offence that has since been decriminalised, a judge might simply impose a suspended sentence rather than jail. However, that assumes that the dpp would still bother with the prosecution.

On the other hand, if an offence was in say The Crimes and Misdemeanors Act 1886 which was repealed and replaced with an identical offence in the Modern Offences Act, 2014, you can be tried and punished in accordance with the old law. The offence has not gone away, it has simply been removed from one statute and replaced in the other.

234

detective wrote: »

Can a person be prosecuted under a repealed Act if the offence book place prior to the Act being repealed.

If you think it through, the act was still a crime at the time at which it was being committed, even though the Act was subsequently repealed.

It's a different story with findings of unconstitutionality where there are issues with voidness from inception.

detective

johnnyskeleton wrote: »

http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/2005/en/act/pub/0023/sec0027.html#sec27

This was precisely what I was looking for. Thank you.