CRW2601 - General Principles Of Criminal Law (CRW2601)
Exam (elaborations)
CRW2601 Exam Pack
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Course
CRW2601 - General Principles Of Criminal Law (CRW2601)
Institution
University Of South Africa (Unisa)
These are Exam questions and solutions as well as those that were found in assignments, study guides and practice questions. When you work through these you will gain an excellent understanding of concepts, theories, techniques and methods which will allow you to answer exam questions. This will sa...
(a) (1) A court may find an accused guilty of a crime only if the kind of act
performed is recognized by the law as a crime – in other words, a court itself
may not create a crime. This is the ius acceptum rule.
(2) A court may find an accused guilty of a crime only if the kind of act
performed was recognised as a crime at the time of its commission. This is
the ius praevium rule.
(3) Crimes ought not to be formulated vaguely. This is the ius certum rule.
(4) A court must interpret the definition of a crime narrowly rather than
broadly. This is the ius strictum rule.
(5) After an accused has been found guilty, the above-mentioned four rules
must also be applied when it comes to imposing a sentence; this means that
the applicable sentence (regarding both form and extent) must already have
been determined in reasonably clear terms by the law at the time of the
commission of the crime, that a court must interpret the words defining the
punishment narrowly rather than broadly, and that a court is not free to
impose any sentence other than the one legally authorized. This is the nulla
poena sine lege rule, which can be further abbreviated to the nulla poena
rule.
(b) For the defence of impossibility to be successful,
(1) the legal provision that is infringed must place a positive duty on X
(2) it must be objectively impossible for X to comply with the relevant legal
provision
(3) X must not himself be the cause of the impossibility
(c) In YG v S 2018 (1) SACR 64 (GJ), the South Gauteng High Court ruled that
the reasonable chastisement defence as currently recognised in the common
law is not constitutionally justifiable (at par [85]). X was charged in the
regional court with assault to do grievous bodily harm in respect of 13-year-
old son, M, as well as of his wife. The two assaults occurred, allegedly, at the
family home on the same day. X was convicted on both charges and
appealed to the Gauteng High Court on the ground that he was exercising his
right as a parent to chastise M by meting out reasonable corporal punishment
for M’s indiscipline. X had caught M using one of the family’s IPads and
accused M of watching pornographic material. M denied it and when M
refused to admit as required by X, he (X) hit him a number of times. X told the
court that they are a Muslim family and that pornography was strictly
forbidden.
The court of appeal (High Court) was of the view that it was in the interests of
justice for it to determine the constitutionality of the defense (par [30])
because the constitutional rights implicated are the rights of children, “who
are afforded particular protection under the Bill of Rights” (par [28]). The court
also emphasized its duty under sections 8(1) and 39(2) to develop the
common law in line with the Bill of Rights (par [28]). The court identified the
following relevant rights in this matter: the right to human dignity (section 10);
the right to equal protection (section 9(3)); the right to be free from violence
(section 12(1)(c)); the right not to be punished in a cruel, inhuman or
degrading way (section 12(1)(e)); the right of children to be protected from
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