Criminal Law in the Africa of Today and Tomorrow

Abstract

Future developments in the criminal laws of many African countries present a number of problems. The influence of English criminal law throughout the English-speaking areas has been universal: even in southern Africa where the legal systems are founded upon Roman-Dutch law, criminal law is to a great extent English in character. 2 It will be seen, however, that English principles when applied south of the Zambezi may undergo metamorphosis as a result of reinterpretation according to fundamental notions of the Roman-Dutch system.