In the United States, criminal responsibility is an individual’s ability to understand his or her conduct at the time of committing the crime. The criminal responsibility in the United States involves the elements of mens rea, which is the criminal intent. It is based on whether the person who committed the crime had that intent in mind ( Umphrey, 2017 ). If an individual was aware in the mind that an act would lead to a crime, whether the act of crime was intentional, the actor knew in his mind, and the actor was reckless. All these elements must be present to sue an individual with the criminal responsibility. In Hong Kong, the criminal responsibility must involve the two elements which are, an act of guilt or omission and the guilt of mind which is known as mens rea. In Hong Kong, a person cannot be held criminally responsible unless the mind is also guilty and the person committed an act of negligence or omission that led to the crime. In Germany, criminal responsibility involves a person voluntarily doing an action and intentionally contributing to a crime. For a person to be held criminally responsible for a crime, such a person must have voluntarily committed the act and knowingly contribute to a criminal result.
In the United States, the substantive law refers to the various categories of public and private laws which include contracts, real property, torts, and criminal law. Criminal law in the United States identifies specific actions as illegal, and some elements must be present to prove the criminal responsibility of a person. At the same time, the rights of the persons accused are protected under the 4th, 5th and 6th Amendments of the U.S. Constitution ( Nonet, Selznick & Kagan, 2017 ). In the United States, the substantive law originates from the common law as well as the legislative statutes. The traditional common law was build based on the previous legal precedents to the cases which were similar in facts. Similar to the United States, the substantive law in Hong Kong is contained various categories including criminal law. While some of the criminal offences are included in the Hong Kong law, others are derived from the common law. Just like the U.S., the law of Hong Kong is based on the rule of law as well as the independence of the judiciary. Charging a person with a crime requires the satisfaction of certain elements that make up a criminal responsibility. Unlike the United States and Hong Kong, the legal system of Germany is composed of civil law found on the principles in the basic law for the Federal Republic of Germany. The criminal law of Germany is contained in the public law which governs the relationship between persons. However, holding an individual to be criminally responsible require the proof of voluntary action and omission on the side of the accused.
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The United States has a decentralized police system where the top management delegate decision making to the middle-level officers. Every state is entitled to run its own police departments and make decisions regarding law and order within the state levels. However, this does not prohibit the federal officials from investigating into police matters for which they have jurisdiction. Police agencies in the United States are group into five categories which include the federal system consisting of the department of homeland security, criminal investigating officers at state levels, the sheriffs’ department, police officers at the cities and police officers deployed at villages ( Cordner, 2014 ). Germany has a decentralized policing models. There are independent police officers at the cities, national police officers at the towns and local police officers at the villages. There are all categories of police officers at all levels, with each department being independent even though the state can have powers to investigate the matters within its jurisdiction. The policing system in Hong Kong is highly centralized, but there is usually some degree of autonomy on the top officers and judiciary.
In the United States, judicial review involves the ability of the Supreme Court to examine the regulation by the Congress and make a decision whether it violates any of the existing laws as stated in the constitution. The Supreme Court has the power to declare legislation by the Congress unconstitutional, null and void. This can however only happen if such an application is brought before it by a complainant. In Hong Kong, the judicial review is conducted based on the constitution and the administrative laws. Under the constitutional review, the court of Hong Kong is given the powers to examine whether the executive or the legislatures are within the constitution and make a decision whether the legislation passed is in compliance with the basic law. This is similar to the case of the Supreme Court in the United States. In Germany, the federal constitutional courts have the power to review the administrative decisions and legislation and declare them unconstitutional if they do not comply with the constitution ( Halliday, 2018 ). While all courts in Germany can review the constitutionality of government legislation, the only court with the power to declare such decisions unconstitutional is the Federal Constitution Court.
References
Cordner, G. (2014). Community policing. The Oxford handbook of police and policing , 148-171.
Halliday, S. (2018). The influence of judicial review on bureaucratic decision-making. In Administrative Law (pp. 245-257). Routledge.
Nonet, P., Selznick, P., & Kagan, R. A. (2017). Law and society in transition: Toward responsive law . Routledge.
Umphrey, M. M. (2017). The dialogics of legal meaning: Spectacular trials, the unwritten law, and narratives of criminal responsibility. In Consciousness and Ideology (pp. 127-157). Routledge.
