Penal Actions
Defined in 1 dictionary — Bouvier (1914)
Bouvier's Law Dictionary and Concise Encyclopedia
John Bouvier; revised by Francis Rawle · 1914
Actions brought in England under a statute forbidding or requiring an act to be done and rendering an offender liable to pay a sum of money to be recovered from him in a civil action. Sometimes the plaintiff is the person aggrieved, sometimes the attorney-general; but most frequently a “common informer.” They are not criminal actions. Odgers, C. L. 944.