Word.ws English Dictionary

nulla pœna sine lege

More pronunciations (2)Fewer pronunciations

Anglicised/ˌnʌlə ˈpiːnə ˌsaɪni ˈliːdʒi/Latinate/ˌnʊlə ˈpɔɪnə ˌsiːneɪ ˈleɪɡeɪ/

nulla pœna sine lege phrase: the principle that a person shall receive no punishment unless he has committed an offence as explicitly defined in a law.

Phrase

nulla pœna sine lege

  1. The principle that a person shall receive no punishment unless he has committed an offence as explicitly defined in a law.
    • This is a wide definition, and the courts, no doubt bearing in mind that a wide application might tend to defeat the maxim “nulla pœna sine lege” have been cautious in its application in practice.1945, The Solicitors’ Journal, volume 89, page 262
    • […] -cutions on these and similar constructs, thereby overruling nulla pœna sine lege.1992, European Journal of Sociology, volumes 33-34, Plon, page 196

Forms of nulla pœna sine lege

alternative formnulla poena sine lege

Origin of nulla pœna sine lege

From Latin: nūlla (feminine form of nūllus, “not any”) + poena (“penalty”, “punishment”) + sine (“without”) + lēge (ablative singular form of lēx, “a law”) = “no punishment without a law”.

Questions about nulla pœna sine lege

What does nulla pœna sine lege mean?
Nulla pœna sine lege means the principle that a person shall receive no punishment unless he has committed an offence as explicitly defined in a law.
What part of speech is nulla pœna sine lege?
Nulla pœna sine lege is a phrase.
How do you pronounce nulla pœna sine lege?
Nulla pœna sine lege is pronounced /ˌnʌlə ˈpiːnə ˌsaɪni ˈliːdʒi/ (Anglicised).

Words near nulla pœna sine lege in the dictionary

  1. nulla
  2. nulla bona
  3. nulla nulla
  4. nulla nullas
  5. nulla poena sine lege
  6. nulla pœna sine lege
  7. Nulla Vale
  8. nulla-nulla
  9. nulla-nullas
  10. nullabilities
  11. nullability

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: nulla pœna sine lege (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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