Criminal law notes south africa

The South African Constitution entrenches the principle of legality.
Its preamble states that South Africa is founded on the supremacy of the Constitution and the rule of law.
The Bill of Rights, meanwhile, provides that “every accused person has a right to a fair trial, which includes ,the right:.

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.

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.” .

The purpose of Criminal Law B is to familiarise students with the characteristics and essential elements of selected specific crimes in the South African legal system, and to consider contentious issues and reforms.