Stanley Yeo

Killing in defence of property

This article comprises a study of several approaches by member states of the Commonwealth on the question of when, if ever, it is permissible to kill in defence of property. Arising from this study, the suggestion is made that the law should recognise a right to apply fatal force where the danger includes a combination of a threat to property and to the person. Furthermore, the law should recognise a partial defence to murder where excessive force has been used in defence of property.

Compulsion and Necessity in African Criminal Law

This article sets out a comparative study of the defences of compulsion and necessity in selected African nations and under the Statute of the International Criminal Court. The aim is to produce the best formulations of these defences for possible adoption by the African nations concerned.

Anglo-African Perspectives on Self-Defence

Forty-eight years ago, the London Conference on ‘The Future of Law in Africa’ agreed that there should be a general set of criminal laws to be universally applied to all African nations. Unfortunately, no progress whatsoever has been made towards achieving this long-term objective. Lately, a fresh impetus for doing so has come from another quarter, namely, the enactment of the Statute of the International Criminal Court in 2002 (hereinafter called the ‘ICC Statute’) which was the culmination of the Rome Conference convened to establish such a court. As a result of the ICC Statute, a permanent international criminal court composed of judges who are independent of their home states, was created for the first time in history, to try perpetrators of crimes against humanity, genocide, war crimes and aggression. The ICC Statute contains provisions spelling out some of the general principles of criminal responsibility. This development is of special significance to African nations because many of them have ratified the Statute. Moreover, at the time of writing, all the cases before the International Criminal Court (ICC) involve African nationals. Consequently, the ICC Statute is an important source of law which African lawmakers (both legislators and judges) should take cognisance of in evaluating the current state of their criminal laws. Among the general principles of criminal responsibility embodied in the ICC Statute is a provision rendering a person not criminally liable who had performed the incriminating conduct in defence of the person against an assailant, commonly described as ‘self-defence’. This includes acting in defence of oneself as well as of another person. Furthermore, the ICC provision includes the right of defence

An Australian Evaluation of Causation in Fright Cases

The tests for determining causation are in an unsatisfactory state in cases where the accused causes the victim to flee, whereby the victim suffers injury. Recently, the Australian High Court in Royall v R examined the nature and operation of these tests. This article analyses the findings of the High Court and argues in favour of the foresight test.