Human Rights and English Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Human Rights and English Law - Essay Example As the paper declares our formulation of the function of the criminal law so far as it concerns the subject of this inquiry . . . is to preserve public order and decency, to protect the citizen from what is offensive or injurious, and to provide sufficient safeguards against exploitation and corruption of others, particularly those who are specially vulnerable because they are young, weak in body or mind, inexperienced, or in a state of special physical, official or economic dependence. It is not, in our view, the function of the law to intervene in the private lives of citizens, or to seek to enforce any particular patter of behaviour, further than is necessary to carry out the purposes we have outlined. From this paper it is clear that the committee report sparked the furious Devlin4-Hart5 debate and educated the public of the need for open-mindedness and clarity of reasoning resulting on the clarification of the problems or issues of homosexuality and prostitution, clearly positivist inputs. What previously has been the undoubted mechanism to enforce social morality, criminal law is being hedged out from private behaviour that does not harm other people; a concept that derived its roots from JS Mill's harm principle. The committee recommendation that "homosexual behaviour between consenting adults in private should no longer be a criminal offence," specifically between men over the age of 21, except in the armed forces, led to the passage of the 1967 Sexual Offences Act which replaced the 1861 Offences against Persons Act, the previous law against homosexuality and paved the way to legalizing homosexuality except for some homosexual acts. The age of consent for homosexual men was reduced in 1994 to 18 and in 2001 to 16 while homosexual acts in the armed forces were decriminalised. In May 2003 the Sexual Offences Act 2003 came into force, repealing the sexual offences of buggery and gross indecency and criminalised sexual behaviour that a person knew or ought to have known was likely to cause distress, alarm or offence to others in a public place, including sexual activity in public cruising and 'dogging' areas. The new act consolidated five previous statutes, particularly the Criminal Law Amendm ent Act 1885, Vagrants Act 1898, Incest Act 1908, Criminal Amendment Act 1912, and Criminal Amendment Act 1922 and further driven by public concern over children. The 1885 act repealed the Contagious Diseases Acts (1864, 1866 and 1869) directed against prostitution.

Legalizing Marijuana Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Legalizing Marijuana - Essay Example For the last 10 years, there has been an on going debate that whether marijuana should be legalized or not in USA. It has become a countrywide debate, but still there is no conclusion drawn that whether the drug is significant or not in use and adaptation. The issue is common but still found in debate and more discussion (Hanson & Venturelli, 2012). I being the speaker of my audience will present the information regarding marijuana’s purposive use and legalization. I will be putting a light on controversies prevailing in the aspect of marijuana legalization. The common perception regarding Marijuana use is that it is a drug, which carries more negative influences than positive for the society. Marijuana is highly influential for the young segment of the society is what the Institute of Drug Abuse asserts in its recent survey (Tate, 2013). The Drug Policy Alliance claims that 90 million Americans of the total country’s population try marijuana once in the lifetime. Moreover, organizations such as the Institute of Drug Abuse and the Drug Policy Alliance depict that violence or psychosis are some behaviors related to Marijuana use and adaptation. These are some negative impressions which people keep about marijuana and its legalization in the country (Steve, 2011). There is another positive side of the perception, which says that marijuana is a productive drug. It is a drug that not only is required in medical treatments but also a drug that can add efficiently to the economy of the country (Caulkins, 2012). According to the contemporary literature, marijuana is the oldest and most significant drug used in the human civilization. Marijuana has been in adaptive use of the western civilization, since the early nineteenth century when it got named as western medicine (Cheryl, 2009). Most of the health institutions like the Institute of Drug Abuse claim that marijuana carries a lot of health risks and therefore