Penal Laws
Defined in 4 dictionaries — Cyclopedic (1922), Ballentine's (1916), Bouvier (1914), Black's (1910)
The Cyclopedic Law Dictionary
Walter A. Shumaker and George Foster Longsdorf; ed. James C. Cahill · 1922
Laws imposing a penalty; the term being used, like "penalty," in several senses.
Ballentine's Law Dictionary
James A. Ballentine · 1916
Bouvier's Law Dictionary and Concise Encyclopedia
John Bouvier; revised by Francis Rawle · 1914
See Penal Statutes.
Black's Law Dictionary
Henry Campbell Black, M.A. · 1910
Those which prohibit an act and impose a penalty for the commission of it. 2 Cro. Jan. 415. Strictly and properly speaking, a penal law is one imposing a penalty or punishment (and properly a pecuniary fine or mulct) for some offense of a public nature or wrong committed against the state. Sackett v. Sackett, 8 Pick. (Mass.) 320; Kilton v. Providence Tool Co., 22 R. I. 605. 48 Atl. 1039; Drew v. Russell, 47 Vt. 252; Nebraska Nat. Bank v. Walsh, 68 Aria 433, 59 S. W. 952, 82 Am. St Rep. 301. Strictly speaking, statutes giving a private action against a wrongdoer are not penal in their nafure, neither the liability imposed nor the remedy given being penal. If the wrong done is to the individual, the law giving him a right of action is remedial, rather than penal, though the sum to be recovered may be called a "penalty" or may consist in double or treble damages. See Huntington v. Attrill, 146 U. S. 657, 13 Sup. Ct. 224, 36 In Ed. 1123; Diver-sey v. Smith, 103 111. 390, 42 Am. Rep. 14: Oullinan v. Burkhard, 41 Misc. Rep. 321, 84 N. Y. Supp. 825; People v. Common Co.uncil of Bay City, 36 Mich. 189.
— Penal servitude, in English criminni law. a punishment which consists in keeping an offender in confinement, and compelling him to labor. Steph. Crim. Dig. 2.
Defined under Penal in Black's Law Dictionary.