Criminal Law Revision Codification vs. Piecemeal Amendment

I. Introduction This symposium issue of the Nebraska Law Review affords additional evidence of the growing interest in criminal law revision. Not only is there interest, but, more important, there are indications that steps are being taken to translate that interest into tangible contributions to the improvement of criminal justice, and particularly toward the improvement of the substantive criminal law which has for so long been ignored.1 It is with revision of the substantive statutory law that this article is primarily concerned. II. The Need for Revision … A. Obsolescence … B. Needless Verbosity C. … Needless Distinctions … D. Needless Overlapping … E. Inadequate Statement … F. Needless Penalty Variations III. Form of Revision … A. Piecemeal Amendment … B. Redrafting of Existing Statutes … C. Codification Conclusion