Legal maxim ‘there is neither crime nor punishment except by text’: Study in the perspective of Islamic criminal law and Pakistani criminal law

Abstract

This study contains on a legal maxim; crime neither can be proved nor be punished without verse or legal text (statute), as well as it is a comparative analysis in prospective of Islamic criminal law and Pakistani criminal law. In contemporary world it is a basic principle in the criminal justice system that a person can neither be convicted nor be punished without prescribed law. Islamic law has fixed some punishments strictly like ?ud?d, qi??? and d?yy?t. while some of the punishments like taz?r?t & siy?sah shar’iah come under the jurisdiction of state according to the circumstances, which can be fixed by practicing parliamentary ijt?h?d by if and only if the experts islamic legal system. This study will deal with the literal meaning of the legal maxim, & will be explained with the references of Qur’an & Sunnah and its applications from Islamic law (al-fiqh al-isl?m?). To make it more clear & evident this maxim will be compared with the constitution & penal code of Pakistan, focusing on the main differences between the concept of crime in both i.e. Islamic criminal law and the Pakistani law.