Criminal Law

Question 1

What did the Wolfenden committee identify as the purpose of the criminal law?

Answer 1

To promote public safety, decency and protect citizens from exploitation (that is those who are vulnerable)

Question 2

What did the Wolfenden committee identify should not be the purpose of criminal law?

Answer 2

It shouldn’t equate crime with sin.
It shouldn’t concern itself with what happens in private with consenting adults.

Question 3

What criteria did Jeremy Bentham identify that must be satisfied for society to interfere with criminal law?

Answer 3

1. The act/omission must be ethically condemnable
2. The ultimate sanction backing its legal prohibition must be likely to be effective
3. The people likely to perform the act should be capable of being deterred by the threat of sanction
4. The sanction/punishment must be profitable to the offender (he will not do it again)
5. The offence must be capable of precise definition

Question 4

What is the provision of S.214 of the Criminal Code?

Answer 4

Unnatural offences
Any person who-
- has carnal knowledge of any person against the order of nature; or
- has carnal knowledge of an animal; or
- permits a male person to have carnal knowledge of him or her against the order of nature
Is guilty of a felony and is liable to imprisonment for 14 years

Question 5

What legal instrument prohibits same sex marriage and public show of same sex amorous relationship, directly or indirectly?

Answer 5

Same Sex Marriage Prohibition Act

Question 6

What is the justification for criminalizing same sex marriage in Nigeria?

Answer 6

You can’t force your view on everybody. Thus there is no justification for the 14 years in prison. At most a number of months because when it is done in private, it doesn’t affect social decency and even when done in public it merely creates a feeling of disgust which passes as an offense and not a crime in itself.

Question 7

Criminal law is a selection instrument to determine what should be criminalized or not. Who said this?

Answer 7

Prof. Adeyemi

Question 8

What are the characteristics of criminal law?

Answer 8

1. Imposition of punishment
2. Prohibition of public wrong
3. It’s specificity. The need for criminal law to clearly and precisely define the act/omission that it prohibits

Question 9

What are the distinctions between crime and civil wrongs?

Answer 9

1. Civil wrongs are redressed by the wronged individual while crime is redressed by the state. Although not all crimes are prosecuted by the state.
2. Crimes attract punishment while civil remedies attract damages and compensation.
3. Civil wrongs violate private rights while crimes are public wrongs.
4. The standard of proof in criminal cases is beyond reasonable doubt while in civil cases, it is proof based on balance of probabilities.

Question 10

The purpose of criminal law as stated by S.2(1) of the Criminal Law of Lagos states:

Answer 10

• to promote an orderly society
• to foster collective obligations and duties towards the preservation and protection of life and property
• forbid and deal with conduct(s) that unjustifiably inflicts harm to individual or public interests
• safeguard conduct that is without fault from condemnation as criminal
  Differentiate on reasonable grounds between serious and minor offences

Question 11

What provision of the constitution provides for the domestication of treaties?

Answer 11

S.12

Question 12

The NDLEA ACT was enacted in what year?

Answer 12

1989