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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:The Administration of Criminal Justice in Cameroon: Realities of the Application of the Uniform Penal Code
Author:Zachry, Ajanoh SoneISNI
Year:1998
Periodical:African Journal of International and Comparative Law
Volume:10
Issue:2
Period:June
Pages:292-307
Language:English
Geographic term:Cameroon
Subjects:criminal law
Law, Human Rights and Violence
External link:https://heinonline.org/HOL/Page?handle=hein.journals/afjincol10&id=304&collection=journals&index=journals/afjincol
Abstract:The corpus of substantive rules of criminal law in the Federal Republic of Cameroon is contained in the Penal Code of 1965-1967, described as 'the first opus of law unification in Cameroon'. The uniform working of the Penal Code, however, is beset with problems. These arise not only from the differences in the English (common) law and French (civil) law heritages of the two federated States, but also in the continuous existence of disparate disciplines of law in the anglophonic and francophonic sectors of the country, each of which in many respects is an operating legal district with its own municipal laws and judicial staff. The author identifies the various hurdles which stand in the way of the uniform application of the unified rules of the Penal Code, such as the absence of a uniform jurisprudence or body of case law, the relics of colonial attitudes and the permissible use of pre-1900 legislation and case law in both sectors of the Republic, and the differences in the laws of evidence and procedure operating in the two different systems of law and the problem of uniform interpretation. He concludes that in a bijural context uniformization of isolated areas of law without a more fundamental harmonization of the whole machinery of justice administration within the legal system is bound to lead to incongruities. Notes, ref.
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