Crimes against the religious sentiment

Abstract

The subject-matter of this thesis verges on the line of demarcation, which distinguishes between Law and Morality. The subject being "Crimes against the religious sentiment'', it is only natural that a chapter be dedicated to the distinction between Law and Morality. The emphasis in this chapter will be laid more on the history of the distinction between Law and Morality than on their definition. The reason for this is that there have been certain times in the history of mankind in which no distinction was held to exist between Law and Morality. Thus in considering the distinction above mentioned, the history of these two concepts will be more amply dealt with than their individual true meaning and differences, This thesis is not meant to be an exposition of a branch of philosophy of law, but it will deal with a particular chapter of Criminal Law, that chapter dealing specifically with Crimes against the religious sentiment. A historical survey of these crimes will show that this is correlated in many aspects with the historical development of the distinction between what is Morality and what is Law. In the next chapter reference also will be made to the reasons for which crimes against Religion have been made punishable by many of the Criminal Codes. The theories which made such crimes punishable throughout the ages, will also be mentioned. Emphasis will be laid on the true one which is accepted also by our Criminal Law. Then the historical development of sections 161, 162, 163 of our Criminal Code will be discussed. This will be followed by a chapter on the sources and interpretation of the above-mentioned sections of our Criminal Code.