TOWARD A PRINCIPLED BASIS FOR FEDERAL CRIMINAL LEGISLATION

This article argues for principles governing the creation of federal c rimes. It first profiles the offenses that compose the major elements of federal criminal jurisdiction in current circumstances and then dis cusses the need for jurisdictional principles, using the history of re cent federal criminal legislation as a case study. Against this backgr ound, the article puts forward a set of guiding principles for the sel ection of appropriate crimes for inclusion in a limited federal crimin al code. When we compare the principles available to govern federal cr iminal jurisdiction with the current pattern of federal versus state c riminal justice activity, the result is that no set of principles matc hes the current reach of the federal criminal code. Requiring both fed eral interest and some distinctive federal stake in the subject of cri minal legislation would substantially reduce the number of federal cri mes. The authors' preference would be for the narrower principles comb ined with the expectation that legislators will not infrequently cheat on the requirement of a distinctive federal stake when constituent pr essures are great. A principled standard is valuable even if it is som etimes honored in the breach.