Vishal Anand
The advent of the twenty-first century has precipitated an ontological crisis within the traditional architecture of criminal law. Historically anchored in the foundational pillars of individual moral culpability (mens rea) and strict territorial jurisdiction, contemporary penal jurisprudence is increasingly ill-equipped to address the unprecedented challenges posed by rapid technological advancement and systemic environmental degradation. This article critically examines the shifting paradigms of criminal liability across two distinct frontiers: the internal erosion of human agency and the external expansion of spatial jurisdiction. By analyzing the nascent fields of neuro-criminology and algorithmic predictive policing, the study investigates how structural brain imaging and machine learning are challenging the classical legal presumption of free will, forcing a precarious transition from retributive justice to pre-emptive, biological, and risk-based models of culpability. Concurrently, the paper addresses the dissolution of traditional terrestrial boundaries by evaluating the jurisdictional voids inherent in extra-terrestrial space crimes and the urgent normative imperative to codify planetary ecocide as a strict liability international offense. Adopting a rigorous doctrinal and analytical methodology, this research synthesizes emerging legal theories, international frameworks, and contemporary moral debates surrounding decriminalization and genetic manipulation. The central thesis argues that the existing legal architecture cannot merely be amended; it must be fundamentally reconstructed. The article concludes that securing justice in future decades demands a recalibrated jurisprudential model, one that mandates neuro-algorithmic transparency to safeguard the constitutional presumption of innocence, while simultaneously establishing a robust framework of “Planetary Jurisdiction” to prosecute transnational and extra-terrestrial harms.