Criminal Law is the morning of 12 September 2027 — Day 3, 10% of the weighted general average, and the first of the two sittings that close the examination. It is the most finite subject on the syllabus: one code, two books, plus a named list of special statutes. Finite means finishable, and finishable means cheap marks.
This article is the map and the order.
The blocks
| Block | What it covers |
|---|---|
| I. Fundamental principles | Nullum crimen; construction and application of penal laws; malum in se and malum prohibitum; the cardinal principles; constitutional limits on the power to enact penal laws |
| II. The Revised Penal Code, Book One | Felonies, including the circumstances that affect liability, the persons liable, the penalties, and civil liability ex delicto |
| III. The Revised Penal Code, Book Two | The titles, from crimes against national security through quasi-offences |
| IV. Special penal laws | The named statutes in the syllabus: access devices, carnapping, fencing, financial account scamming, graft, hazing, and the others the coverage lists |
Two structural observations that shape the study plan:
Book One is where the marks are. Questions about whether an act is a felony, what stage it reached, who is liable, what circumstance attended it, and what penalty applies are Book One questions, and they recur every year. Candidates who race to Book Two because the crimes are more interesting lose the framework that makes the crimes answerable.
Book Two is a list, and lists can be covered. The titles are finite; each has a handful of elements that generate questions. Learn elements, not case law.
Where the hours go
For 90 hours on a 10% sitting:
| Block | Hours |
|---|---|
| Book One (felonies, circumstances, persons, penalties) | 40 |
| Book Two (the titles) | 35 |
| Fundamental principles | 5 |
| Special penal laws | 10 |
That is an unusual allocation — 45% of the subject's hours on Book One — and it is the correct one. Book One is the grammar; Book Two is the vocabulary. An answer with vocabulary and no grammar cannot be marked.
Book One: the sequence
Study it as a sequence of questions about a single act:
- Is it a felony? The definition, the elements of criminal liability, and the requirement of a voluntary act — including the treatment of mistake and of intent.
- What stage did it reach? Consummated, frustrated, attempted — each with its own test, and the offences that cannot be attempted or frustrated.
- Who is liable? The principals, accomplices and accessories, and the concept of conspiracy as a mode of incurring liability.
- What circumstance attended it? The justifying, exempting, mitigating, aggravating, and alternative circumstances — each with its effect on the penalty.
- What penalty applies? The rules for applying penalties, including the three periods of a divisible penalty, and the effect of the attending circumstances.
- Is there civil liability? Ex delicto, its basis, its extent, and its independence from the criminal action.
Note the Bulletin's specific relief: in Criminal Law, the examinee is not required to perform numerical computations to determine the specific periods of penalties expressed in years, months or days. So you must know the rules for applying a penalty — which circumstances move it, and in what direction — but not the arithmetic of the resulting period. That is a large saving, and it tells you what to study: the mechanism, not the multiplication.
The circumstances block, done properly
This is the single most examinable page in the subject, and the single most confused.
For each circumstance, learn three things: the ground (what it is), the effect (acquittal, reduction, no increase, or aggravation), and one fact pattern that illustrates it.
The confusion is nearly always between the categories rather than within them: an exempting circumstance and a justifying one both produce acquittal but differ on civil liability, which is exactly what the question asks. Learn the consequence column and the confusion disappears.
Book Two: elements, not stories
For each title, learn the offences as elements, and the element that distinguishes the offence from its neighbour.
Three titles carry the most questions:
- Crimes against persons — the offences against life and physical integrity, with the elements and the qualifying circumstances that change the offence.
- Crimes against property — the taking offences, with the element that distinguishes them (violence, intimidation, force upon things, abuse of confidence), and the qualifying circumstances that elevate them.
- Crimes committed by public officers — long, but structured by the specific acts, and it aligns with the graft statute in the special laws.
Learn each offence with: elements, the distinguishing element from its nearest neighbour, and the penalty range (without computing it).
The special penal laws
The syllabus names them, which is a gift: you know exactly which statutes are examinable.
For each, learn four things:
- What it punishes (the prohibited act).
- Who may be liable.
- The elements the question will test.
- One contemporary issue the statute addresses — because questions in this block are frequently practical (a device, a card, an online account, a hazing incident).
The statutes listed include access devices, carnapping, fencing, financial account scamming, graft and corrupt practices, and hazing. Each is a small statute with a short list of elements; the block is 10 hours of work, not 30.
Practice that transfers
- The element drill. Take ten offences and write the elements from memory. Ten minutes. Mark what you missed.
- The circumstance drill. Take ten fact patterns and answer only: what circumstance, and what effect. Two lines each.
- The classification drill. Take ten past questions and answer only: what offence, and why that one rather than its neighbour.
- The full answer drill, twice a week: twelve minutes, an offence question, with the conclusion, the elements, the application, and the civil liability.
The 10% framing
Criminal Law is a tenth of the result and, with Labor, one of the two sittings that can be completed. A candidate who masters Book One's framework and the elements of the three heavy titles, and who knows the named special statutes at the level of their elements, has the sitting at answering level — and can spend the saved hours where the weights demand, per playing the weights.
For the penalties block in more detail, see penalties and their application; for the statutes, special penal laws on the syllabus.