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PENAL CODE
SECTION 2-24


2. This Code takes effect at twelve o'clock, noon, on the first dayof January, eighteen hundred and seventy-three.3. No part of it is retroactive, unless expressly so declared.4. The rule of the common law, that penal statutes are to bestrictly construed, has no application to this Code. All itsprovisions are to be construed according to the fair import of theirterms, with a view to effect its objects and to promote justice.5. The provisions of this Code, so far as they are substantiallythe same as existing statutes, must be construed as continuationsthereof, and not as new enactments.6. No act or omission, commenced after twelve o'clock noon of theday on which this Code takes effect as a law, is criminal orpunishable, except as prescribed or authorized by this Code, or bysome of the statutes which it specifies as continuing in force and asnot affected by its provisions, or by some ordinance, municipal,county, or township regulation, passed or adopted, under suchstatutes and in force when this Code takes effect. Any act oromission commenced prior to that time may be inquired of, prosecuted,and punished in the same manner as if this Code had not been passed.7. Words used in this code in the present tense include the futureas well as the present; words used in the masculine gender includethe feminine and neuter; the singular number includes the plural, andthe plural the singular; the word "person" includes a corporation aswell as a natural person; the word "county" includes "city andcounty"; writing includes printing and typewriting; oath includesaffirmation or declaration; and every mode of oral statement, under[/align]