penal jurisdiction

The Court exercises both civil and penal jurisdiction under the old Common Law of Scotland and many Acts of Parliament.

Conversely, the Church in the Middle Ages increased its penal jurisdiction in the civil domain by infliction of varied penalties, some of them purely secular in character.

The penal jurisdiction of the county courts was to apply only where the debt had been contracted under circumstances which implied an intention to defraud (which upset Wetherfield) or where the debtor had the ability to pay but would not.

The aim of the Constitutio Criminalis Carolina was to unify the legal system of the Holy Roman Empire, and thereby put an end to the penal jurisdiction which had until then varied haphazardly between the Empire's states.

The penal jurisdiction of the medieval Church included, therefore, first the merely ecclesiastical offences, e.g. heresy, schism, apostasy etc.; then the merely civil offences; finally the mixed offences, e.g. sins of the flesh, sacrilege, blasphemy, (diabolical 'black') magic, perjury, usury etc.

They were held in check by the Abbot's own penal jurisdiction, and by the knowledge that the Abbot could instantly expel them to their fate at the hands of the Common Law: the Abbey Gatehouse was split into two prisons, one of the Abbot's and one for the constables outside.

According to some experts, Article 97 has been quoted by the Italian authorities out of context, as it deals with 'Penal Jurisdiction in Matters of Collision or any other incident of Navigation' and in the case of Enrica Lexie there was neither any collision nor any navigational incident.