Criminal Law 101

0:00 doing today so um as far as today's presentation is concerned we're going to cover quite a lot i've put down three topics for our revision and you'll understand with me that we will not be able to go into the details as we normally have done if we're in the classroom so we'll take the general concept give an explanation refer to the key authorities and make sure that at least you have a better understanding of this concept so as to ground the key principles that really define the substantive criminal so as you see on your screen we have 10 main things to address this afternoon

0:45 with the concepts definition of criminal law we'll look at the general principles in terms of what criminal law is as compared to civil law we will look at definition of crime we will talk about the characteristics of crime address the sources of criminal law classification of crime we'll talk about jerusalem the principle of legality and the principle of gujarati we will touch on the topic of punishment and then finish with um the general elements of a crime that is actus rules and the mainstream so this is going to be the content for um this afternoon's presentation without much i do i will go to the first

1:31 part and then this is how we're going to proceed i will be um taking the concept one after the other address them explain them if you have any questions please stop me and i will be glad to come back and answer your questions clear all your doubts before we move on we only have to be mindful of the time that we have the delivery is over a period of three hours so um for those who would like to put comments uh questions in the comments section you can do that by way of uh the chat box you can put the questions in there and then if you want to ask a question to try to make it quite brief so that we can make some progress great so the first part that you always need would be what criminal law is um its

2:18 functions and this is very important because it is the basically provides an idea of what the subject is about so if you were to go to the examination room and have some questions on criminal law it will be important for you right from the beginning to have an idea of the subjects you are dealing with so what is criminal law the key points that you need to know about the subject first of all it's being a branch of the public law by public law we mean um branch of the law that deals with release that aim at protecting the public interest and not the individual interest so that's what criminal law is about this is a branch of the public law as far as criminal justice is concerned

3:04 criminal law is a foundation of our criminal justice everything about criminal justice is founded on the criminal law so it is the foundation for criminal justice and i tell you that of all the areas of the law that we have criminal law is the most powerful tool that the state uses to regulate itself it does so by defining conducts that are acceptable and conducts that are not acceptable how does it do that by giving a description of certain acts and omissions that are prohibited in the state by giving the ingredient of such

3:49 omissions and conduct and prescribing some punishment for them such that where a person goes against the prescriptions that person will have to suffer some criminal punishment so basically that that is um the branch of the criminal of the law that you are dealing with so branch of the public law that constitute the foundation of a criminal justice system that seeks to define acts and omissions that are prohibited that gives an idea of the punishment that will go them and of course also gives an idea of how their prosecution should be conducted how their christian person should be convicted and how the accused person

4:35 should be punished looking at that you realize that the target of the subject criminal law is on acts and omissions that are prohibited generally by law and not just act and omissions prohibited but prohibited by the criminal law whereby a person who goes against the prescriptions will suffer some criminal punishment so the focus or the target of the subject is on crimes acts and omissions that are prohibited only by law so if the acting omission is not private by law

5:21 where the law exists in some statutes then of course you'll be outside the scope of criminal law the prohibitions must exist in statutes the prohibitions must exist in a statute good so that's the general framework of it when we talk about criminal law general is a very broad concept and again you must know for purposes of any examinations that you are preparing for at this stage the focus should be on your subtentive criminal law and not the procedural criminal so for those who have some idea of the procedural criminal law you must be very careful in the examination room because at this stage you will not be tested on procedure then trust examine if any questions should come from criminal law should be

6:07 on the subjective criminal let's try therefore to distinguish between substantive criminal law and the procedural criminal when we talk about a substantive criminal law we are referring to the branch of the criminal law that deals with criminalization what do you mean by that a branch of the criminal law that tells us exactly what is prohibited the elements constituting the prohibition which will be the ingredients of the offence and then the punishment that goes with a particular prohibition and also gives an idea not only of

6:53 the gravity of the offense but also the amount of punishment that will be applied to a person who offends that law so the act and our mission specifically provided for the ingredients that constitute the particular prohibition the punishment the gravity of the offense that will be the subjective criminal law and that should be the focus of this revision procedural criminal law or what you also call the objective on criminal law refers to the branch of the criminal law that deals with how a prosecution is conducted

7:39 how an arrest is made how a person is convicted how a person is sentenced so the procedural law or adjective law basically regulates the application of this attentive criminal law so how do you arrest a person how is a person prosecuted in the country how does a judge get to a conviction what happens to the accused person during sentence and when he's in prison this is all the procedure of criminal alone that will not be the focus of this revision and also in the examination room as much as you

8:25 can try to stay clear of any aspect of the procedural criminal law that's not what you've been tested on so let's attentive criminal so let's get that focus on the acts the missions that are prohibited the key ingredient of each prohibition the category of the offense the punishment that goes with it that is accepted if criminal law again if you should appreciate or you you'll be in a position to appreciate criminal law you must understand the functions of criminal law it is a broad area of the law a broad area of the public of the public law and it seeks to achieve a number of

9:11 objectives when we talk about the function of a criminal law we can divide it into two one that will relate to its broad functions and then one expects that to relate to some specific functions of the criminal in terms of the broad functions of a criminal criminal law seeks to regulate human conduct it seeks to regulate the human conduct it seeks to control human conduct and it does so in basically three main ways it gives us an idea of what is acceptable and what is

9:57 acceptable so that we are aware of what is prohibited by law and the punishment that your sons suffer if you violate the laws that is the preventive function of the criminal which is quite broad so giving notice to members of the entire community of acts and omissions that are not acceptable in society making them aware of the punishments that will go with that crime of the crimes and by that it seeks to instill in the people some compliance where people know the boundaries

10:43 of the actions that should be acceptable and what will not be acceptable so once that notice is given the human being or the citizen knows his obligations you make sure you do not cross the line because you know if you cross the line persecution and conviction awaits we talk about the preventive function of the criminal law in that regard again where a person goes beyond that first function of the criminal this time around it means that you have failed to comply with the laws as given you have violated the substantive criminal or given then we have the second function of a criminal law its curial function

11:30 in other words what happens when a person violates any law prohibiting a particular conduct at our mission that is the career function it relates to criminal prosecution generally because we're looking at what a person what happens to a person when a person commits that crime the arrest your rights as a suspect of a crime your rights as a suspect a person who has been charged how you go through criminal prosecution and then answer to the charges against you that should be the killer function of the criminal law so you have to find out why the accused

12:17 person committed the offense you must find out whether the accused person should be convicted or there's some justification you find out whether indeed accused person can be found guilty that's the typical function and of course that's an opportunity also for the accused person to give any justification or the defenses if the accused person has any towards the commission of the act or mission that is prohibited then we have the punitive function but the punitive function will relate to um instances where after the curious function the court finds that the accused person has no justification whatsoever in law for committing the wrong in which case punishment as a key element

13:05 of criminal law applies so if you want to be very accurate in your description of the general functions of the criminal law do not limit yourself to the punitive function of the subject it is not the purpose of criminal law to only punish no but it is a process first of all by giving notice and seeking some preventive values secondly when that has not happened and the citizen has committed what appears or suspected with the success suspected to be a crime then you have the cure function in which case the opportunity will be given to the prosecution to

13:51 establish guilt and accused person to bring a case if there's any defense to show that no i cannot be convicted based on the prosecution's case and where there's evidence pointing to guilt and the accusation is convicted that is where the punitive function of criminal law applies so let's try and distinguish that so talking about the three i was relating to the general functions of a criminal specific functions of a criminal law and the specific functions of a criminal law generally relate

14:37 to the divisions within the criminal law as a subject the substantive criminal when you take your criminal offences act you realize that the document is divided into parts you have a part on [Music] offenses against the person you have a part on offenses involving dishonesty you have a part of offenses against public morals you have a part on offenses against the administration of justice these are all subdivisions in the act and for each category each part or division you have a function that a criminal

15:22 seeks to achieve but better understand this try and read the case of republic versus where the court referred to the writings of stevens and criminal law and then gave these descriptions so for each division if for example we are talking about offenses against the person then the function of a criminal law will be to prohibit instances where unlawful harm will be mentored out to people leading to either harm or death the function of the criminal law in that regard will be to protect the individual the citizen against allah

16:09 for her that could be a specific definition and function of the criminal law as far as offenses against the person are concerned if we're talking about offenses involving dishonesty then the function of the criminal law in that regard would be to protect property of the evidence where you have offenses of stealing defaulting by false pretenses fictitious trading and others so when you take that division or part and then the criminal offenses act you will have um function some specific function of the phenomena if you're talking about administration of justice

16:55 then you will have the purpose of the criminal law which will be to prevent people from unlawfully interfering of the administration of justice so for each subdivision within the criminal fences act you have a specific function of the criminal law in addition to the broad or general functions of the criminal level that we have with the preventive equilibrium and then the punitive functions so these are going to be the key ones great on this first one may i know whether there are any questions on the function the definition of criminal law the subdivisions and then the functions do i have any questions

17:42 anybody with any questions all right if there are no questions then we can go to the second which is how to distinguish between criminal law and civil law this part is very important and i would like everybody here to be very attentive to this part yes there is a honda michael osu michael your hand is up michael oh someone your hand is up

18:29 all right so i can get back to you later on assume there's no response it's very important pay attention to some details here because as you get into the examination room michael usa michael your hand is up again all right so i think you are preparing to write an exam and in the examination room you must be on your paper you must be as accurate as possible give the impression create that impression in the mind of the examiner that you understand exactly what you are writing about if it's a question on criminal law you

19:14 should not confuse it with anything about civil law because of course that will give the impression to the examiner that you are a confused candidate and you do not understand criminal law and civil law are two parallel branches of the law in general but criminal law always maintains some unique identity generally the terms the procedure the release that we seek in civil law remain common on our lips but that does not mean that the field of criminal law is dominated by civil law not at all and therefore try as much as possible to stick to the language to the principles to the

20:01 procedures penalties of criminal law when what you are dealing with a criminal or question and also of course same applies if you're in the area of civil law criminal law seeks to protect the public interest of the public right not the civil interests not the private interests of the individual not the private right of the individual it is because criminal law rests on the assumption that the interests of society the right of the society

20:46 put together constitute some form of a bondage that keeps the entire society together in which case if one person offends that bond that we have then of course we risk having some disintegration of the society it is when all the members in the community agree not to do a particular thing that that society can progress because then we have a consensus and we all come together to set that limit on that of what is acceptable and what is not acceptable so when when one party goes against the standard that we have set

21:32 that reinforces that bond then the person has not only offended the direct victim but also the entire community of which that person is part we come together and say that no one should kill when one person kills another we assume that the person has not only offended the victim and the victim's family but also the entire community it is a breach of trust if you want to put it until because you've all come together to agree on a particular thing and behind our back you go and then do what we have all come together to

22:18 prohibit that is how we establish the public interest or rights of the community it will always override the interest of the victim or the right of the victim who is directly affected by the accused person's act it does not also mean that the victim will not have any relief at all the victim will have a relief and relief directly against the person who violated the criminal law but that relief will exist in a civil case that you have to bring to clean compensation or any other relief that may be available in a civil court

23:04 the individual may not be in a position to pursue the accused person in the court to seek a conviction because as i stated as an individual who is a direct victim your leaves will be in a civil law and not in a criminal matter so first of all we note that because the criminal matter the state's interest dominates the prosecution is not by the the victim but by the state the prosecution is by the states the state will reproduce the attorney general will represent the state in the name of the republic against

23:50 the accused person and that's how it goes good so the individual will have no right to influence the prosecution you cannot go to the prosecutor and tell the prosecutor i'm the victim i am not interested in the matter so stop the prosecution that should not happen and it cannot legitimately happen in criminal law a criminal law italian criminal that shouldn't happen because in a group in ghana the victim does not bring charges and cannot drop charges for that matter it is the states that brings the charges against an accused person it is the states that can drop them so the reading criminal law try to

24:36 distinguish between what is doable within a criminal justice system as against what happens or pertains in some other foreign jurisdictions so as a victim of a crime you cannot bring charges you cannot drop charges what you do is to report the matter to the police you go there lodge a complaint and the rest is for the state to handle while the state is not interested in the prosecution of the case as a victim there's nothing you can do we do not have a system of private prosecutions in this country it used to be uncertain books but repealed so there's no system of private prosecutions so where the state refuses

25:23 fails neglects to prosecute a person who otherwise could be found guilty of a crime a victim or have no relief whatsoever you can petition the attorney general but that will be as far as you can go there's nothing really much you can do in terms of seeking any specific relief of course it's understandable the punishment that we are seeking in the courtroom will not directly benefit the victim where the vic the accused person is convicted so that this person is sentenced to a term of imprisonment or to pay a fine to the state it does not go to the victim whether his person is incarcerated it does not heal the wounds of the victim so the victim's remedies will generally

26:09 be at cephalon now of course there are cases where a judge is allowed to make some orders in respect of compensation and restitution to the victim but those will be there are severe beliefs they cannot be the many beliefs that an individual can struggle to go to court that pursue no in a criminal in a criminal court you cannot you have to bring an action to that defect good so you know the interest of the state dominates and not that of the individual number two distinguish between the procedure and criminal law and the procedure in the civil courts in criminal law we have an accused person

26:56 we have a complainant we have the prosecution these are the three key parties where the victim actually becomes a witness for the prosecution so have that in mind so we do not go into criminal matter talking about plaintiffs and defendants and this speaks volume about a student who in a criminal or matter is referring to a plentiful defendant it happens all the time but i tell you in an entrance exam if you get comfortable using plaintiff and defendant while preferring to decided case or in your own write-up

27:42 referring to plaintiff and defendant the examiner is more likely to cancel your answer and give you zero but it simply means that you do not understand what you're talking about so always remember who the parties are in a criminal matter they're going to be the complainant it's going to be the accused person and it's going to be the prosecution the procedure for trial criminal trial is completely different from the procedure that we have in a civil trial in a civil trial you file your rate statement of defense reply you go for direction you go for case management the trial begins then

28:29 the judge comes to read his judgment makes his rulings alongside in a criminal matter that is not the case in a civil matter both parties have equal chances and therefore bear virtually the same body in terms of trying to convince the court to obtain the relief it's a 50 50 thing the balance of probabilities when it comes to criminal law that is substantially different it is a one-man show at the beginning in terms of having the prosecution coming to court to reduce enough evidence to the extent that at the end of the

29:15 case of the prosecution there will be evidence on record that without more will point to the guilt of the accused person then the accused person obligation that his business applications arise to then address any evidence to rebut whatever the prosecution has had used to create doubts so that he will not be convicted so the processes are different the reliefs or remedies are also different in a criminal matter whatever is imposed is generally in the nature of punishment that's why punishment remains a core element for the concept of crime in a civil matter

30:02 the relief may not necessarily be punitive at all that are generally compensatory in a civil matter you have to be restored to the position you have been if the defendant had not acted in a particular manner that's how the server applies but in a criminal case where you are found guilty the intention would be to punish you by imposing the penalty either a term of imprisonment a death sentence fine and what have you great so we might thought of these details they are very important and you should not confuse them at all very important in examination

30:50 students write in the exam do not give the opportunity to the examiner to take you for someone who does not understand criminal law to mark you down in the civil law any questions michael your heart is still up i do not know whether you're following whether you want to ask a question all right then i'll bring your hand down okay so moving from that now let's hit into

31:36 the core of what crime is we are still in the introductory matters michael do you want to ask a question your hand is up again i do not know whether you are saying something but it's not coming through um [Music] so maybe you may reach the i.t person to help you i do not know what's wrong all right so now let's go into what crime is and then move from there there's a question

32:21 okay somebody's asking what you should not be in the exam i said do not confuse civil law and criminal law in the exam if the question is about criminal law do not refer to plaintiffs and defendants because you do not have plaintiffs and defendants in a criminal matter when there is an answer before me from a candidate in a criminal a question on criminal law the candidate is referring to plaintiffs and defendant automatically you failed the question so that is the question that i'm giving that dialect in the examination room where you come across a criminal law question and you are answering it refer to accused person refer to persecution refer to victim

33:07 but not to plaintiffs and defendants and in criminal law do not come and talk about damages and accuse person that you and what happens all the time is somebody writing for example that's the complainant of the victim can bring an action for damages against the accused person in the criminal matter these are things you have to avoid because that sentence is enough to have you repeat the course that statement goes the examiner knows that you do not understand so that's what i'm trying to say all right another question [Music] okay um i think only one question so far all right so let's move to the next concept here

33:54 we're talking about crime what crime is crime is a very elusive concept simply because it does not have a definition either by statute or by judicial decision so far in our jurisdiction so you have to be careful what you take to be a definition we have some common law definitions which are acceptable but in trying to define what prime is what we will be doing is to put forth some key elements that must at all costs come within your definition what is crime

34:40 generally we are told crime is an act for which there is punishment it is a prohibited conduct for which there is punishment the focus appears sometimes to be on punishment all the time but now you know that criminal law is not necessarily on punishment that is not the sole function of the criminal law it is a very broad concept because if you want to understand the idea of a crime look at it this way it begins as a concept in the mind of something that is not acceptable then we define it in words in a book

35:27 then we give it some ingredients if it's assault then we tell you it must include a b c and d must come together before it becomes a crime and the definition there's something implied in there that if the person goes against what is stated here there will be some punishment and therefore the criminal offenses tells you that the person who commits assault will be um guilty of a misdemeanor punishment up to a time of imprisonment of three years so you see that in its as a concept it is quite broad that many things come that come within it so if you want to go give a definition that is ample enough to have these

36:14 elements then you must go beyond a crime being an act that is prohibited of punishment and accident that will be some definition but not comprehensive enough when you take the criminal offenses act section one it tells you a criminal offense is a criminal offense as defined under the constitution and when you grant article 1921 of the criminal offices act of the constitution it also tells you that a criminal offence is an offence under the laws of ghana generally you realize that these definitions are relevant definitions if a crime is a crime under the constitution and a crime is a crime under the laws of ghana the question is

37:01 we are back to what is a crime so note it section one which is the interprotection deportation section of the criminal offences act does not give us any good definition of crime the article 1921 that it refers to also does not give us any good definition of crime but we have hulk's breeze we have many definitions of crime which sometimes refer to one or more elements when you are told a crime is a public wrong that's a definition by some people others will tell you a crime is an act for it is punishment that's another definition but as i'm saying

37:47 these are not enough you cannot build a comprehensive definition around one or two key elements because when we are talking about a crime four main things apply in that concept for every crime that you see that exists in our statute books the four ingredients or the four key points that we are going to discuss here apply it is a crime simply because it is a public interest so every crime is either an act or an omission to act which act society feels is against the public interest so that's the first one it's against the public interest and it's because it's against the public interest

38:33 society deems it fit to be criminalized so we have prohibited by statute which is prohibited by statute so an act or mission that violates the public interest which is prohibited by statute and then not everything prohibited by statute is a crime so when it is prohibited in the statute of all its elements it should be one that a prosecutor should be able to take through criminal prosecution in a court so capable of being taken through criminal prosecution

39:18 and the outcome must be punishment so where the accused person is found guilty then there is punishment so put together you will define crime as an act or mission that is prohibited that is against the public interest first of all against the public interest that by law in writing if it is not in writing then there is no criminal at all it must be prohibited in writing in addition to that it must be capable of being taken through criminal proceedings and then the outcome must be a form of

40:05 punishment whether i um a time of imprisonment or life imprisonment or or death or payment of a fine so this would be the key elements that you must have at least at your fingertips entering any examination room if you have to deal with the definition of crime any actual mission that violates or is against the public interest that is prohibited by statute that can be taken through criminal proceedings and has punishment as its outcome once you have these things these four elements applying in the definition then you have

40:53 a crime so that will be the definition of a crime that'll be the definition of the crime so do not seek any definition under section one and article 1921 you will have some definitions that are not redefinitions but try to impress the examiner let them know you understand by saying that if it's a crime before you cause something a crime that thing must be against the public interest as a result of which it is prohibited in writing in a statute watching the prosecution can take through criminal proceedings and when there is conviction that this person

41:39 will suffer punishment these will be the key elements that must come in your comprehensive definition of crime good now we always talk about public wrong moral wrong from the definition i gave stated that it must be against the public interest which makes it the public wrong so from the definition we have to address the issue of characteristics of a crime you know now this topic two main things are addressed crime as a public wrong and crime as a moral wrong

42:28 they are not competing values they all apply at the same time every crime is a public wrong every crime so that is the character the first character of a crime is that it's a public wrong it's against the interest of the community is against the interests of the general society then its second character relates to its association of morality how did criminal laws start from natural law and therefore there is some discussion as to whether every crime is a moral wrong

43:15 that's how the second part comes in so let's discuss crime as a public wrong and discuss crime as a moral wrong the first part is not contentious every crime is a public rule why because it violates the public interest and when it violates the public interest it is a state that takes over the case prosecutes punishes the accused person that the attorney general is tasked to do that in the name of the republic so its public character relates to the intervention of the state

44:00 in handling the case and imposing punishment it is not the victim that does it it is the state that does it the state decides whether to prosecute or not to prosecute it is for the state to decide so you realize that generally the victim has no contribution let me put it down in seeking the conviction of an accused person you will be used as a witness and that is all the only time that the law allows individuals to have some amount of participation

44:46 in the criminal process is such unless section 73 of the court act where in the case of misdemeanors that are not aggravated in nature the accused person and the prosecution can try some settlement they can try settlement the scope is very limited it's a bit narrow we are not looking at all offenses but only misdemeanors and not just misdemeanors misdemeanors that are not aggravated in nature in that case the state will allow the prosecution and the accused person

45:33 to have some settlement done it does not mean that the matter leaves the court automatically if you have to settle that whose person is arrested it is respect of a misdemeanor which is not aggravated in nature they can appear before the court and announce the record that the parties want to make settlement of course in the course of the settlement you may have the victim properly represented why some terms are reached the proper procedure will be for the parties to draft the terms of the settlement and file it in court based on which the court will adopt it and then dismiss the case that's what is done so under 1673 73 does not mean that when

46:18 you commit assault then you're going to see the person settle outside there's always the record to be taken the appearance in court must be made then the opportunity given to the parties to attend the settlement and report to the court the only thing that is waived would be the punishment that will have come upon conviction so that is the public character of the wrong of the criminal right or of the crime the public character of it then we have so every crime now you know every crime is a public wrong it doesn't matter every crime is a public role but we need to draw some line between crime and morality which is very important

47:06 when society comes together to set the standard of acceptable conduct what it doubts in practice is that it determines what is good and what is bad in the society that sense of judgment is also a form of morality in criminal law we call it public morality when society comes together as a group and sets the standard of acceptable conduct it gives its sense of morality which is called public morality because it tells the entire community what is good and what is bad that is a public morality

47:53 as to what one individual feels is wrong or right we have no application in criminal law because criminal law does not deal with private morality so the unique religion that you have joined your perception of what is right and wrong will have no application in criminal so you know cheating is not a crime by our sense of public morality we do not find it to be so bad as to punish a person who cheats so it is not a crime so anytime you hear morality in criminal law if at all there's any form of morality

48:39 we will be referring to the public morality the sense of good and bad underlying the standard of acceptable conduct adopted by the community that is the public morality that we apply not what one person thinks one religion thinks and things like that no that is how it is good then we have this interesting sense of morality what as an individual under natural law you know it's good and bad so you should know that it's different from the public morality standard some things you feel are so bad that

49:25 nobody should do them we pick these moral principles from religion generally and therefore from natural law natural law influence the common law common law influence our statutes are modern principles of criminal so for most of the offenses they have their roots in criminal law and therefore a good amount of these offences will also have some roots in natural law to that extent we have some crimes or types of crimes that are affiliated with respect of when dealing with um morality you have the affiliation between that crime and the interesting sense of morality

50:13 so we're talking about some crimes that are inherently wrongful we're talking about crimes like murder like rape like stealing which are inherently immoral wrongful we can find them in a religion we can find them and then principles of natural law to feel that these are things that not ought to be done so that's the first category then we have another category of criminal offenses that's how those offenses have nothing to do with morality should be talking about crimes that are based on social expediency they have nothing more or immoral if i run

51:00 the red light at midnight there's nothing more or immoral about it if i do not pay tax there's nothing moral or immoral about it but if i kill that's everything about morality in it so not all crimes have something to do with morality and that's why the case of proprietary articles trade association and attention of canada said crime and morality will not be co-extensive in other words they will not have the same field of application criminal is one part morality is on one part the cross that intersection is where the crime is at the same time

51:45 an immoral act so those acts that are immoral refer to the concept of crimes of intrinsic wrongfulness and crimes that have nothing immoral about them are crimes based on social expediency so you can divide the nati i mean crimes into two categories based on this characterization crimes that have something to do with morality interesting wrongfulness crimes mala insane and crimes that have nothing to do with morality these are crimes based on social expediency we refer to them as crimes mala

52:31 prohibitor so that the distinction must also be very clear in your minds so do we have any form of morality in criminal law yes as far as we are referring to the concept of public morality the sense of good and bad that informs our standard of acceptable conduct to determine what is acceptable what is not acceptable if we think that conduct is acceptable we will not prohibit it that's the main reason why adultery is not a crime because it is not so bad that society feels that it ought to be a crime so but a sense of public morality it is

53:18 not a crime that is it all other offenses you can have a categorization based on either social expediency or intrinsic wrongfulness so these are the two key arguments that we have whether crimes the public wrong order crime is a moral wrong so as i stated these categoric characteristics of crime do not compete we are not they are not in any form of engagement where we are trying to see whether it is public wrong or it is a moral wrong law every crime is a public wrong a crime may be a moral wrong may also not be immoral wrong good

54:04 any questions on the characteristics of crime crime as a public wrong which you should understand and crime as a moral wrong that you should understand in that case they will be referring to acts that are mala insane crimes that are being is on principles of natural law acceptable any questions the characteristics of crime okay if no question we are still introductory matters let's go to the

54:51 sources of criminal law again you never know where the question will come from so it is good you have an idea of some of these things whether we are talking criminal where do we find it what are the sources of criminal law let's understand some basic things has several sources and i have listed them on your screen the constitution statutes one that is doubtful which is a customary law court decisions by laws and regulatory offenses so the subject of criminal law has a

55:36 number of sources a number of resources and you must know them before you walk into the examination room because you never know what you're supposed to write in there constitution which is the mother law basically determines what is valid and what is invalid by way of statute and the constitution itself creates a number of offenses you have the offense of treason created by the constitution article 1917 mentioned strictly we have the offense of high crime

56:21 you have the offense of high treason these are all offenses created by the constitution itself but now you should understand what high crime is if the supreme court makes an order an article too and the person who is supposed to execute that order does not or fails too what happens is that the person may be convicted of her crime and when you are convicted of high crime you may be jailed for up to 10 years in prison and in addition to the term of imprisonment for 10 good years after you have saved

57:06 your time you will not be in the position to hold any public office or to become the president or vice president of the republic if you're talking about high treason it is the highest form of treason because an offense against the constitution the person who is trying to but through the constitution commits high treason the punishment is death ordinary treason that's when you try to overthrow the government or the punishment is life imprisonment because it is a first degree felony so the constitution itself in addition to serving as the mother law giving validity to all

57:52 statutes and other laws also establishes some crimes article 19 of the constitution guarantees a number of rights for suspects and accused persons so the constitution has got a lot to do as far as criminal law is concerned in addition to the constitution we have statutes statutes remain the core expression of criminal law in this country all criminal offences are in the nature of statutes we have hundreds of criminal offences in this country and every offense if it's not in the constitution must be found in a statute

58:38 before you call it a crime we have so many statutes that have criminal prohibitions the bain statute is the criminal offenses act 1960 act 29 i would like you to draw your mind to the name of the act and also to be abreast with development in that area it said some time to even see judges writing criminal code in 2021 the criminal code has been repealed now we have the criminal offenses act we have the criminal offices act and its amendment

59:24 so if you are holding a criminal code jettison that book get the criminal offenses act which is an act that was made through a reform of the criminal offices act itself some adjustments have been made to the content of the court into the act the laws under the criminal offenses act have been reformulated rephrased the language has changed from what we used to have under the criminal code in addition to the criminal offices that we have countless statutes or on criminal law anti-money laundering act and human trafficking that anti-terrorism act

1:00:11 cyber security act domestic violence act these are all laws statutes that establish crimes the road traffic act we have many of them my name is act they're countless and they all establish or make provisions for criminal offences and their punishment so when talking about statutes never make the mistake of thinking that the criminal offenses act is the sole source of criminal law as far as that are concerned it is one of the many many statues

1:00:59 but the criminal offices act remains the key document that brings together hundreds of offenses at the time it consolidates many offenses at the time so it becomes the lead document in criminal law because of its aggregation of the many many offenses that would be for statute as to whether customary law is the source of criminal law remains a debatable issue section 8 of the criminal offices that says that nobody can be punished at criminal alone under the commodore

1:01:45 simply to state that there shall be no crime under the commodore that crime must exist under a statute not common and by common law we're referring to the ordinary rules of common law ordinary rules of equity ordinary rules of customary law if a person cannot be punished for a crime another common law then it means that a person that there can be no crime under customary law that there can be no crime under the rules of equity that there can be no crime under the common law

1:02:30 therefore where parliament or a body acting under the instructions of parliament or authority of parliament has not made an act a crime then it means that the act will never be criminal the act can never be criminal there are a number of decided cases on this are referred to just two of them their brain the republic fully versus the aid of the republic and that the brenda republic for example the question that came to the phone is whether or not a particular custom establishing a crime may be validated in criminal law in that case the leather judge made a

1:03:16 pronouncement and stated that because customary law is not written if a person wanted to make a particular conduct a crime and at a customary law then that person ought to have taken some steps to have the act prohibited lawfully and will do so through the national regional house of chiefs from traditional council to regionals of cheese to natural subject to the attorney general to the minister and life will be passed that will criminalize that particular conduct under the customary law the question here has been whether or not it will be prudent

1:04:04 in a country like ours to have crime so this is a debate in their brain the republic there was this proposition that it could be possible for a person who expected to have who's who expects to have some crimes and customary law to take steps to the traditional council regional nationals of chiefs to the minister and the attorney general to have an ally passed under which ally a particular conduct and a customary law will become a crime this is what the judge said in 1991 but its implementation for some of us were

1:04:50 very problematic and it may be the reason why since 1991 steps have not been taken to put this into practice that's one thing that we have to note uh otherwise going in by section eight it should be impossible for a person to suffer in a criminal liability or prosecution under customer law we have court decisions that remain an important key or factor as far as the constitution of um as far as the sources of criminal law are concerned

1:05:36 you will admit that we administer an adversarial system so in terms of giving the flesh to the law how it applies it is normally the cost that does it when we want to know what the court says about about a particular statute we go to the judgment of the court so judicial decisions remain a core part of the source of criminal law what the law means how the ingredients are to be established they all emanate from court decisions we are not saying that judges establish crimes we are not saying that judges pass

1:06:21 crimes and make crimes what we have seen is that judges give flesh to already what already exists as a crime judges will give details in terms of content of a particular act or mission if that is to amount to a crime they explain they defined therefore we consider judicial decisions as one of the sources of criminal law then we have bylaws and regulatory offences where mmdas have been given the authority to make laws in their communities imposing criminal punishments

1:07:09 and these bylaws have the force of criminal also so looking at what you have on the screen the number of sources of criminal from the constitution to statute to customary law to court decisions to by laws and regulatory offenses these are all potential sources or the all sorts of criminals again have your mind on customary law that's what i can become a source of criminal law in the case of debra in the republic the hint taking is that it should be possible but sitting here

1:07:54 we think this may be problematic it may be problematic to have it great so that to be all for the sources of criminals sources of criminal law any questions on sources of criminal alright no questions on sources of criminal law then let's move to classification of offenses again in the examination room you should be in a position to demonstrate to the examiner that you know and understand what you have read as far as criminal

1:08:41 law is concerned we are talking about classification or categorization of criminal offences we can classify crimes based on and number of indexes according to the gravity of the offense according to the mode of trial that the nature of the offense as to whether it involves some element of morality malap prohibitor and mana insulin so in terms of the gravity of the offense we have misdemeanors we have second degree felonies we have first degree felonies

1:09:27 and we have capital punishment if you are defining a crime according to the gravity of the offense then you may have misdemeanors when the punishment is not more than three years you have second degree felonies where the punishment may not exceed three years um 10 years sorry but again there's a caveat here when you take section 296 you realize that the number of second degree felonies that are punishable by time of imprisonment of more than 10 years in fact a good number are punishable by a term of imprisonment of up to 25 years

1:10:15 so it is not absolute to say that second degree felonies are punishable by term of embracement of up to ten years it is nuts then we have the first degree felonies these are criminal offences punishable by life imprisonment generally we have exceptions there too because when you take the case of rip for example the punishment is between 5 years and 25 years it is a first degree felony that does not attract life imprisonment then we have capital offences where the punishment is death when referring to high crime

1:11:02 sorry high treason murder genocide in these three instances you may be executed grits as far as the classification according to the gravity of the offense is concerned these are the groupings that we have misdemeanors punishment up to three years second-degree felonies punishment up to ten years generally but we've had a number a lot of exceptions we have first degree felony punishment life imprisonment with a number of exceptions the capital offenses that are non-negotiable once you are found guilty of murder you should be killed so basically look at that also

1:11:52 we can also classify criminal offences according to the mode of trial so in the examination room what you should not do for example is to start calling a felony misdemeanor or start calling a misdemeanor a felony we also have classifications according to the mode of trial and understanding you know that by now two modes of criminal trial in ghana either you have a summary trial or you have an indictment trial or trial entitlement summary trials are normally referred to posterior a procedure normally applied in respect of non-serious offences not necessarily misdemeanors for so many offenses

1:12:39 you try them summary and section two of activity tells exactly which offences can be tried separately and it tells you that if a law establishes a crime and says that the crime should be prosecuted summarily should be tried summarily then it is an offense travel summary because that prescription is within the law the law says a person who commits abcmd commits an offence and shall on summary trial you see that all the time

1:13:26 so once you see on that you see that expression in any statute and shall on someone try then you know that is an offense travel summary if you have an offense where the punishment is less than six months automatically you are tried summarily where the section creating the offences should be tried on indictment then it's some offense travel or indictment all first grade felonies are travel and enlightenment all capital punishment offenses also travel on indictment

1:14:12 in between you may have criminal offences where the punishment is more than um eight months where law is silent as to how that offense should be tried we have one category of hybrid offenses in which case the prosecution has the right to decide how to try the effects so if you have a crime that is the law says should be punishable summary then it is an offence of summary trial the punishment is imposed it's less than six months

1:14:57 it is punishable summary first degree felonies punishable indictments capital offense is punishable enlightenment where the offense create the section creating the offense says it should be trial and entity moment it's also travel and indictment in any other case that is not covered for example the offense is a misdemeanor but the punishment by law is more than six months or the offense is a second degree felony in those cases that floats in the middle the prosecution has the discretion to determine whether the crime should be tried summary or

1:15:45 on enlightenment so be conversant with section 2 of act 30. for that categorization you can also categorize crimes depending on their association with the concept of morality or immorality we have seen that so when you talk about crimes that are inherently wrongful or immoral they are crimes insane crimes that do not have any element of morality a crimes mala prohibitor you should understand the two latin expressions

1:16:30 it is also possible to categorize crimes based on conduct crimes and a result crime what is a conduct crime what is a resolved crime let me begin with the result crime when you're talking about reserve crime you're talking about or referring to crimes where a person commits an act but the act becomes an offense only when some expected result or consequence is achieved if it is murder then after causing harm to you the harm must lead to your death so murder depends on the consequence the result the conclusion of the harm caused

1:17:17 so murder will be a result crime it will be a result crime because my liability will only arise when the victim dies after the ham cost so the results of the harm cost which is death must happen before we talk about medal of manslaughter so it is absolute trend when you assault a person assault an actual battle you slap a person or you hit the person touch that person that the person's consent that case there is no result that is expected from your act so

1:18:02 as to make it a crime it is a conduct crime but there's no expected results we do not expect the act to lead to some other thing before we charge the crime so it will be a conduct crime so looking at these categorizations you understand what a felony is first degree felony second degree felony what the capital punishment is what a misdemeanor is you should know the difference between summary trial and trial indictment you should be in a position to know how to distinguish between male instead crimes and mala prohibited crimes

1:18:48 you should be in a position to also distinguish between conduct crimes and resolved crimes any questions all right if there are no questions then we'll go to the next okay michael usa michael your hand is like up again yeah i've managed to you know switcher

1:19:36 okay what i'm using i was using a the laptop earlier on but now i'm trying to use the mobile phone too okay so i have a lot of questions but maybe i'll ask the question later later the trial the indictment and the summary trial yeah there is uh one which is in between when the punishment is uh six months yes and that will be determined by the prosecutor in this case is it the energy who is to determine yes the mood of tribe yes or is the police no it is the age the police does not conduct prosecution you know the police investigates

1:20:21 the police prosecutor is somebody who has been trained and licensed by the attorney general to conduct prosecution so when the police officer is conducting a trial he's doing that in his capacity as a state prosecutor but only that he's a police officer i hope your question is answered yes you can put the rest down yes rich good now let's talk about jurisdiction let us talk about jurisdiction

1:21:07 you must know section 56 of the court's act so if you do not have it try to acquire it and familiarize yourself with the content by this type of jurisdiction we are not looking at the jurisdictions of the various courts in criminal matters it is assumed that you've done that under legal systems and you know the jurisdiction of the district court in criminal matters the jurisdiction of the circuit court in criminal matters the jurisdiction of the high court in criminal matters legislation of the court of appeal and

1:21:54 criminal matters and the jurisdiction of the supreme court in criminal matters under section 56 we are looking at when an act which is criminal in nature can be deemed to have been committed in ghana so asked to vest our court of jurisdiction to try and prosecute the accused person that is what we are looking at when an act or mission that is committed can be deemed to amount to a crime in ghana so as to invest our court with jurisdiction to try

1:22:41 the person the country where the crime is committed always has jurisdiction country where the crime is committed always as jurisdiction which you call the dominant jurisdiction and in some cases a crime may not necessarily be committed in one particular country for that matter in ghana the crime may be committed either partly in ghana partly outside of ghana or committed holy outside of ghana but when even though committed outside of ghana will be a crime didn't committed in ghana for purposes of prosecution

1:23:28 we have that so that is what section 56 is about so we'll go through the key rules and you understand them under jurisdiction understand two main things that the country where the crime is communicated has jurisdiction criminal law is domestic so if an american commits an offence in ghana today ghana has jurisdiction except to when you have matters of immunity applying otherwise gonna have jurisdiction why because the offense was committed in ghana we call that the territorial jurisdiction it is a dominant jurisdiction

1:24:16 but in some cases the status of a person may give the country transaction to try citizens of ghana outside of ghana for acts and omissions committed either partly outside but only in ghana or holy outside of ghana ghana it will still be presumed that the acts of the wrongdoing committed outside of ghana is a crime committed in ghana and let's look at it the territorial jurisdiction is very basic the country where the crime is committed has jurisdiction in ghana it is under section 56 1 of the contact

1:25:02 and by territory we mean the soil we mean the airspace we mean any ship or aircraft registered in the name of ghana where crime is committed in any of these areas ghana will have jurisdiction but they form part of the territory of ghana ghana will have jurisdiction then we have the extra territorial jurisdiction where the crime is committed completely outside of ghana we cannot have jurisdiction or the crime will be committed partly in ghana and partly outside of canada

1:25:48 good so if you have your criminal office you're caught up you can open it and let's run through section 56 so 56 1 is the territorial jurisdiction ghana will have jurisdiction over any crime that is committed in ghana irrespective of who caused that crime we have section 56 too where a crime is committed partly in ghana partly outside of ghana ghana assumed jurisdiction to try the person who commented the act you see it in ghana to defraud somebody in togo

1:26:36 the victim is not integral but you began your act of fraud in ghana for that matter even though you have not taken anybody's money from ghana and the victim is in togo ghana will still have jurisdiction to try you have been convicted because it will be a crime committed partly within ghana and partly outside of ghana again you may be a citizen of ghana and then citizenship you can now have jurisdiction to try and convict you

1:27:21 for a crime that you have committed outside of the country so any citizen of ghana who is employed as a public officer who goes outside of ghana and commits a crime over there if he is not already tried and prosecuted in that country and that person comes to ghana ghana will have jurisdiction to try and convict him a citizen of ghana who is a public officer has no business committing crimes outside of the country and it does not matter that the act committed outside of ghana is not in actual fact a crime in that country

1:28:08 if in ghana the law is that consuming indian hemp is a crime if you are a public officer you go outside of ghana and while outside of ghana you smoke indian heaven there is evidence of that and you come to ghana you will be arrested and persecuted because you're a public servant you're a ghanaian citizen and what you have done outside of ghana if it was done in ghana will be a crime so you will be arrested and prosecuted an incident of ghana who commits out murder outside of ghana if he comes to ghana and he has not already

1:28:55 be convicted and punished for the murder in ghana we will convict and punish you even though nobody is dead that is it citizen of gun who embezzled any state outside of ghana that person comes to ghana and has not already been punished ghana will a citizen of ghana who commits on any diplomatic mission a crime if he comes to ghana we will try and convict him

1:29:43 so this section 56 3 we also have crimes of universal jurisdiction under section 56 4. it does not matter where the crime is committed where the accused person is found in ghana and ghana have jurisdiction so as far as jurisdiction is concerned in ghana section 56 remember the two broad lines of terrorism and extra territorial jurisdiction if it's territorial then we are referring to the accused person committing the act in ghana and therefore cannot have jurisdiction at all cost irrespective of who committed the offense

1:30:32 then we have the extra territorial where we will not go by the territorial i will look at the status of the person including the person's citizenship so no section 56 as i said one two three and four territorial and extra territorial jurisdictions of ghana great there's a case of republic basis

1:31:18 the republic supreme court of ghanaian law report i think that everybody must read that case before your exam the public verses appear on jurisdiction good still in our introductory matters and talking about principles we have the principle of legality and the principle of double joking are going to look at them know how to establish them and how meaningful they are

1:32:04 in a criminal justice system the principle of legality there is only one principle of legality that has two branches no crime without law no punishment without law but it is one principle then we have the double job at the room that has a number of definitions together they come to protect the accused person the principle of legality seeks to give advanced notice to all members of the community to the citizens by informing them what is expressly prosecuted and prohibited

1:32:53 and what the punishment for the particular activation is prohibited is that is a principle of legality so that no one is taken by surprise

…