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Criminal Law Crw2601 Assignment 1 Semester 2 2102

This document contains an assignment for a Criminal Law course at UNISA. It includes the student's name, student number, module registration details, assignment question, degree program, and exam center. The assignment question discusses two issues: (i) whether an unborn fetus can be considered a legal subject for purposes of murder, given that a fetus does not have legal rights or status until birth, and (ii) the principles of factual and legal causation and how they apply to a hypothetical scenario where an individual shot another person in the stomach, likely causing their death without medical intervention.

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3K views2 pages

Criminal Law Crw2601 Assignment 1 Semester 2 2102

This document contains an assignment for a Criminal Law course at UNISA. It includes the student's name, student number, module registration details, assignment question, degree program, and exam center. The assignment question discusses two issues: (i) whether an unborn fetus can be considered a legal subject for purposes of murder, given that a fetus does not have legal rights or status until birth, and (ii) the principles of factual and legal causation and how they apply to a hypothetical scenario where an individual shot another person in the stomach, likely causing their death without medical intervention.

Uploaded by

gizzar
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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UNISA

CRIMINAL LAW CRW2601

ASSIGNMENT 01 SECOND SEMESTER 2013 6/9/2013

NAME STUDENT NUMBER MODULE REGISTRATION PERIOD CODE UNIQUE NUMBER DUE DATE DEGREE PROGRAMME EXAM CENTER POSTAL ADRESS ZIMBABWE

OSCAR SIMUKAI JEMWA 4927-397-3 CRIMINAL LAW CRW2601 ASSIGNMENT 1 SECOND SEMESTER 2013 353495 6 SEPTEMBER 2013 03492 BACHELOR OF LAWS HARARE EXHIBITION PARK 12466 UNIT N SEKE CHITUNGWIZA

ASSIGNMENT 01 SECOND SEMESTER 2013 SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULLFILLMENT TO THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE UNISA BACHELOR OF LAWS PROGRAMME

OSCAR SIMUKAI JEMWA 4927-397-3 CRIMINAL LAW CRW2601 ASSIGNMENT 1 SEMESTER 2 2013 UNIQUE NUMBER 353495 03492 BACHELOR OF LAWS EXAM CENTER HARARE EXHIBITION PARK

Question (i) The definitional elements of murder read, the intentional killing of another human being. Human being, is used in this context to mean a legal subject. A person assumes their legal status at birth. The conceived but unborn child is thus not a legal subject and cannot have rights, duties and capacities. The principle of legality means that there is no crime without a law. A comprehensive definition of the principle of legality can be laid out as follows: An accused may not be found guilty of crime and sentenced unless the type of conduct which he is charged: (a) (b) (c) (d) Has been recognized by the law as a crime, In clear terms, Before the conduct took place, Without the court having to stretch the meaning of the words and concepts in the definition to bring the particular conduct of the accused within the compass of the definition...

Since the foetus is not a person there is no conduct amounting to murder and X cannot be held liable for such. Question (ii) Conditio sine qua non (factual causation) defines an indispensible condition or simply put if the act cannot be thought away without the situation disappearing at the same time. Factual causation is without limits. An act is a legal cause of a situation if, according to human experience, in the normal course of events, the act has a tendency to bring about that kind of a situation. Legal causation is applied to achieve the delimitation of factual causation. The authoritative case here is S V Tembani 2007 (1) SACR 365 (SCA). In this case it was held that, the deliberate infliction of a dangerous wound from which the victim is likely to die without medical intervention must generally lead to liability for an ensuing death The bombing would not qualify as a novus actus since X previously foresaw that shooting Y in the stomach would result in Y s death. Xs shooting is thus the legal cause of Ys death.

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