5 Sine Lege Stricta — The Principle of Strict Construction

The rule: penal statutes are to be construed strictly — in dubio pro reo (doubts resolved for the accused): ambiguities are resolved in favour of liberty, nothing is read in "by equity" or analogy, and the text's plain meaning governs. Rationales: the citizen's fair warning; the separation of powers (only the legislature defines crimes); the presumption of innocence's operation in interpretation.Its limits (the sophisticated half of the answer):• Strict construction does not mean narrow-minded construction: the rule against absurdity applies; the "golden rule" and purposive reading survive so long as they favour, not burden,the accused;• Modern practice (and the Code's general interpretive clauses) tempers literalism where the legislative purpose is plain and the reading does not expand liability;• The comparative note: the USA's constitutional vagueness doctrine (fair notice + anti- arbitrariness: the void-for-vagueness doctrine); the UK's human-rights-era legality scrutiny; India's Article 20 protections (Nepal's Article 20 being the counterpart).