to Us. We have examined it and made such alterations as We “deemed necessary and finding it to meet with Our wishes in “every particular, We now signify that the Penal Code, in the “form hereto annexed shall become the law of Our Kingdom.”[1]
We may now proceed to see what are some of the more general features of this Code.
Classification of Offences.
The new Penal Code of Siam discards the system of dividing offences into classes— a system in vogue with most of the older Penal Codes. If we open the French Penal Code of 1810, which is still in force, the first thing we meet with is the division of offences into three classes, namely, crimes, delicts, and contraventions.[2] This system was followed by most of the Older Penal Codes — such as those of Belgium, Germany, Japan, Italy, Egypt, etc. One great defect of this system is that it is impossible to define crimes, delicts and contraventions in such a way as to distinguish them logically one from another. For, what logical difference is there between a crime and a delict? There is none. They are both offences. It is no wonder then that the French Penal Code simply begs the question by saying that a crime is an offence liable to afflictive or infamous punishments or to both; a delict is an offence liable to correctional punishments, and a contravention is an offence liable to police punishments.[3] Logically, this is nO definition. If the Courts were divided into corresponding classes, for instance, as “Criminal Courts,” “Correctional Courts,” and “Magistrates’ Courts,” such a division of offences into classes might be found useful in deciding the question of jurisdiction. But the fact is, that in Siam, as in many other countries, the powers of a “Criminal Court” and the powers of a “Correctional Court” are vested in one and the same .Court. Consequently, there would be neither logic nor practical utility to warrant the adoption of the conventional system of dividing and classifying offences. However, for the sake of convenience, petty offences are grouped together at the end of the Code. That the modern tendency has been to do away with the system of dividing and classifying offences may be seen from the fact that the new Penal Code of Japan, promulgated
