Principle of Legality
The rule that no crime or punishment exists without prior law
Overview
Nullum crimen sine lege, nulla poena sine lege, forbids retroactive crimes and punishments, requiring clear prior statutes interpreted strictly in favor of the accused. It descends from Enlightenment penal reform, notably Beccaria and Feuerbach, and anchors penal codes across the civil law world and human rights treaties. Nuremberg strained it by prosecuting crimes against humanity under evolving law, a tension resolved by treaties codifying such crimes afterward. It remains the first shield against arbitrary prosecution. The principle also forbids analogy to create crimes, a canon of penal interpretation everywhere.
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