Common law
Common law offences remain part of the common law of a jurisdiction until "abolished" by legislation or superseded by specific legislation that takes precedence over the common law offence. In jurisdictions with specific legislation, the legislation must be "repealed" to remove the offence. Jurisdictions, known as "common law jurisdictions" use common law exclusively. Other jurisdictions, known as "code jurisdictions", use a Criminal Code or Crimes Act with all common law abolished. Yet other jurisdictions are "mixed jurisdictions" as they have a mixture of both with a Criminal Code or Crimes Act and common law offences that have not been abolished. In Australia, the Commonwealth, Queensland, Tasmania, and Western Australia are code jurisdictions with all common law offences abolished. In code and mixed jurisdictions the common law may still define the offence and set the penalties.