INTRODUCTION TO LAW AND FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS

Question 1

“If law was not created It could have been discoverd.” discuss.

Answer 1

To discuss on this topic we will need to understand the concept of law, its orgins and why it is essential
Law is a rule of human conduct imposed on and efforced among human beigns of given society
The orgins of law on the other hand is not so clear at it is divided into school of thoughts:
1. Natural Law
Led by Thomas Aquinas, they believe that law comes from God and can be found in the Bible or Quoran, in the form of the 10 commandments given to Moses
2. Positive Law
Led by John Austin and Jeremy Bethan they believe that law was created by man, to gorven man, and that law cannot be called law if it does not have enforcable consequences unlike the law belived by the natural school of thought which is moral in nature with no direct enforcable consequences.
Even the two schools of thought may disagree The positive school of thought also belives that even man made law took it’s rise from god
As for why law is neccessary. The are 4 main reasons. Without law:
-> There will be no order in society
-> Socity will crumble
-> Man or his property will not be protected
-> The wickedess of man will not be able to contained in him

To conclude Law could have either been directly created by God or discorvered by man, but one thing is clear that neccesessity of law will always from invaluable to a society ensuring that there will be always some kind of law

Question 2

What are the sources of law?
ii) Differenciate between a decree and an ordinance.

Answer 2

There are several possible sources of law but we will discuss on 5 of them:
1. The Constitution
The constitution is the highest form of law in a country and every other law takes it’s rise from it, no law in the country can go cotrary to the constitution

2. Legislation
   These are laws made by the parlaiment, the excutive arm of gorvenment or laws from internation treaties
3. Customary Law
   The southen Cameroon highcourt recognises customary law as legitimate enforcable
4. Legal writings
   Books written by highly qualified poeple in the field of law, can influence the law maker
5. Judicial Precedence
   Common recognises judements passed by supperior courts as laws to be followed by inferior courts where as civil law does not recognise the concept of judicial precedence

II) A decree is any made and passed by the president. An ordinance on the other hand is law that was meant to be passed by the parliament but because of circumstances beyond them it is passed by the president. Ordinances are subject to paliamentary approval once the parliament are able to meet again.

Question 3

What are the principles behind the administration of Justice in Cameroon?

Answer 3

The five main principles that guide the adminsitration of Justice in Cameroon (miss PRU-DJ). These principles include

1. Public administration of Justice:
   Cameroon’s judicial organization law states that justice shall be administered in public and judjements shall be passed in open court
2. Resoned Jundgment
   Cameroon’s judicial Organinisation law states that any judge that passes judgement shall state, the reson for said judgement bassed on fact and law
3. Unity of civil and criminal court
   Unlike other countries, in cameroon civil, and criminal cases are handled in the same courts by the same judges.
4. Decentralised court system
   In Cameroon no Judge in one court can tell a judge in another court how to judge a case, judges in this system are fully independent from each other.
5. Justice is rendered free of charge
   Acording to Cameroon’s judicial organization law, justice is rendered free of charge except for the payment of stamp duties, judges and other judical staff are paid by the state

Question 4

Differenciate between criminal and civil responsibility and classify the different types of criminal offenses in Cameroon.

Answer 4

To differenciate between civil and criminal responsibiliy we must fist understand criminal and civil action.
Civil action is legal action initiated by an individual to protect his/her personal rights, of which his/her opponent will owe civil responsibilty on the other hand, Criminal action is legal action that is innitiated by the state to protect socital rights, the accused will owe criminal responsibility
The differences between criminal and civil responsibility include:

-> Civil law aims at prottecting individuals and while Criminal law aims at protecting the society as a whole

-> The pushment for breaking civil law is compensation while the punishment for breaking criminal law is fines or imprisonment

-> When some one breaks civil law their wealth is on the line, when they break crimminal law their liberty/freedom is on the line(at risk).

-> The parties in civil matters are called the plantiff and the defendant, the parties in criminal matters are called the prosecutor and the accused

The classification of criminal offenses are as follows

1. Felony: These are any offenses punishable with over 3 year of imprisonment e.g armed robbery and murder
2. Misdeminors: These are offennses punishable with 3 years of imprisonment and bellow e.g theft and assault
3. Contraventions: These are offensses punishable by fines and administrative penalties e.g traffica voilations and petty theft
4. Economic and Financial crimes: These are offensses relation to finance or economic matters e.g bribery, embezllement
5. Cyber crimes: These are cirmes that primary involve computers or the internet, e.g hacking, scamming
6. Offenses involving public order secuirity, e.g terrorism, rioting

Question 5

Cameroon has a bijurial legal system. discuss

Answer 5

The two principal legal systems in the world which are the Common and Civil law systems, Cameroon unlike other countries has a system that incorporates both of these system. But these systems have differences which shall be explored bellow

1. Origin:
   Common law in English law having its roots from england while Civil law is French law having its roots from France
2. Presumtion of guilt:
   In common law an accused person is presumed innocent untile proven guilty beyond resonable doubt infront of a court of law, but in civil law an accussed presumed guilty until proven innocent beyond resonable doubt infront of a cout of law
3. Jurisdictional duality
   The concept of Jurisdictionaly duality is a concept that involves havign seperate laws and courts for administrators and individuals, This is the concept used in Civil law where as Common law follows the Jurisdictional unity approach where individuals and administrators are judged in the same courts with the same laws
4. Nature
   Common law is principally Case law, while civil law is principally Written law