Court System and Statutes

Question 0

District Court Category 2

Answer 0

Imprisonment less than two years or those punishable based sentence or fine (or both) eg : intentional damage

Question 1

District Court Category 1

Answer 1

Fine only - eg Fighting

Question 2

District Court Category 3

Answer 2

Imprisonment for two years or more, with the right to elect trial by jury

Question 3

District Court Category 4

Answer 3

Offences that must be tried by a High Court jury

Question 4

What is a Statute?

Answer 4

A statute is an act of parliament

Question 5

What is Case Law?

Answer 5

When there are legal arguments over sections, words or phrases in court and the judge has to decide the correct meaning which is then binding on lower courts.

Question 6

What is actus reus?

Answer 6

The actus reus is the physical act or effort required to carry out the crime or offence

Question 7

What is mens rea?

Answer 7

The mens rea is the intent of the offender. It refers to the person’s guilty knowledge or what was in their mind when they did the actus reus.

Question 8

Define Ingredients

Answer 8

As well as the actus reus and mens rea, all the separate parts of the offence must be proved. These are known as the ingredients.

Question 9

Define Criminal Law

Answer 9

This deals with imprisonable offences and fine only offences

Question 10

Define Civil Law

Answer 10

This deals with the protection of individual rights, breaches of the rules are called Torts.

Question 11

List the court system and the four lesser

Answer 11

Supreme Court, Court of Appeal, High Court, District Court with Family Court, Youth Court, Jury trials and Judge alone trials.

Question 12

Define “The Doctrine of Precedent”

Answer 12

This doctrine requires lower courts to observe the decision of higher courts when adjudicating.