This being a presentation of a legislative enactment, not explanatory notesor a commentary on its provisions and certainly not a theoretical,comprehensive analysis of the topics considered therein, it is bound to bemost concise and selective. The reader will thus encounter below a briefreference to the main subjects dealt with by the Proposal, with emphasis onthe significance of proposed solutions.

The reasons why Israel requires a new penal code, generally, and, for astart, its Preliminary and General Parts, in particular, are inherent bothin the process whereby the existing Law has developed, and the quality ofthat Law.

Israeli criminal law suffers from old age. Its direct source is the CriminalCode of Cyprus of 1928; the latter having been copied, with certain changes,from the Queensland Code of 1899, which for the most part reflected thejudicial decisions of English common law, some of which were formed manyyears previously, and are largely outdated. Scientific standards havechanged and progressed.