S V Lavhengwa
In ''S v Lavhengwa'', an important case in South African criminal law, it was held that the right created in section 35(3)(a) of the Constitution, which provides that the right to a fair trial includes the right to be informed of the charge with sufficient detail to answer it, implies that the criminal charge itself must be clear and unambiguous. This, according to the court, would only be the case if the nature of the crime is sufficiently clear and unambiguous to comply with the constitutional right to be sufficiently informed of the charge. It was further held that, in order to comply with the requirement of sufficient clarity, one should bear in mind * that absolute clarity is not required, reasonable clarity being sufficient; and * that a court, in deciding whether a provision is clear or vague, should approach the legislation on the basis that it is dealing with reasonable people, not foolish or capricious ones. See also * South African criminal law References ''S v L ...
[...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  

South African Criminal Law
South African criminal law is the body of national law relating to crime in South Africa. In the definition of Van der Walt ''et al.'', a crime is "conduct which common or statute law prohibits and expressly or impliedly subjects to punishment remissible by the state alone and which the offender cannot avoid by his own act once he has been convicted." Crime involves the infliction of harm against society. The function or object of criminal law is to provide a social mechanism with which to coerce members of society to abstain from conduct that is harmful to the interests of society. In South Africa, as in most adversarial legal systems, the standard of evidence required to validate a criminal conviction is proof beyond a reasonable doubt. The sources of South African criminal law are to be found in the common law, in case law and in legislation. Criminal law (which is to be distinguished from its civil counterpart) forms part of the public law of South Africa, as well as of th ...
[...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]