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Title: | Archibald versus Attorney-General in Perspective: The Role of Actuarial Evidence in the Assessment of the Defendents' Damages for Loss of Support in Botswana |
Author: | Fombad, Charles Manga |
Year: | 1999 |
Periodical: | African Journal of International and Comparative Law |
Volume: | 11 |
Issue: | 2 |
Pages: | 245-261 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Botswana |
Subjects: | liability Law, Human Rights and Violence Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) |
External link: | https://heinonline.org/HOL/Page?handle=hein.journals/afjincol11&id=261&collection=journals&index=journals/afjincol |
Abstract: | In Archibald v. Attorney-General, the Botswana Court of Appeal had to determine the method for assessing the quantum of damages in dependants' claim for loss of future support caused by the unlawful killing of their breadwinner. The case highlighted some of the complexities of Botswana's legal system, based as it is on two legal systems which have 'mixed' and are 'mixing' the English common law, where the use of actuaries in this field is a matter of considerable debate, and the Roman-Dutch law as applied in South Africa, where the use of such evidence is fairly well entrenched. The present author analyses the approach adopted by the Court and argues that the proper solution does not necessarily lie in extensive excursions into, and the adoption of extraneous legal principles or practices which cannot easily fit within the evolving socioeconomic and legal realities of Botswana. Whilst the Court's decision may have authoritatively cleared the way for actuarial evidence and actuarial aids to be admissible in Botswana courts, it is doubtful if the manner of computation used, and the quantum of damages awarded, can be a safe guide to the award of damages in similar cases that may come up before the Botswana courts. Notes, ref. |