About this book The novel is, at its core, a deep exploration of the moral considerations that drive crime and whether there is some point or level at which crime cannot be considered to be moral in the circumstances. The novel addresses these questions by engaging with an overarching story of true crime, supplemented by […]
Archive for the ‘Education’ Category
DARK VALUES AND DEEPER VOICES
Posted: 23rd November 2024 by James Grant in Criminal Law, Education, evidence, International Criminal Law, International Law, mental disorder, poverty, True CrimeTags: crime, criminal law, drug dealing, homelessness, International law, kidnapping, murder, poverty
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Pistorius: A brief reminder
Posted: 10th March 2024 by James Grant in Criminal Law, EducationTags: criminal law, dolus eventualis, murder, Pistorius, Self-defence
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Oscar Pistorius has recently been released on parole. It may be helpful to be reminded of how this can be. Pistorius was convicted of murder — the murder of whoever was in the toilet of his on-suite bathroom. He was given the minimum sentence applicable: 15 years, less time served, and he recently qualified for […]
The Incompatibility of a Claim to Self-Defence against a Charge of Genocide.
Posted: 18th January 2024 by James Grant in Criminal Law, Education, International Criminal Law, International LawTags: criminal law, Gaza, Genocide, Israel, Self-defence
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What is the relationship between genocide and self-defence? How can it be that everyone seems to agree, that there can be no defence to genocide? How can one understand Israel’s claim that they are not committing genocide but instead they are acting in self-defence? Why is it that Israel argues that its conduct is in […]
South Africa’s application against Israel for genocide.
Posted: 9th January 2024 by James Grant in Criminal Law, Education, International Criminal Law, International Law, UncategorizedTags: Genocide, Hamas, International Criminal Court of Justice, International Self-defense, Israel, Palestine, Palestinian, War
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The application in which South Africa accuses Israel of Genocide needs to be taken seriously because of what is in the document, and not because of anything about it. It is trite that international law prohibits the use of force by a state with two exceptions: The use of self-defense is governed by Article 51 […]
The Al Bashir Precedent and the Obligation on South African Officials to Arrest Putin.
Posted: 23rd April 2023 by James Grant in Criminal Law, Education, International Criminal Law, International LawTags: arrest, ICC, International Criminal Law, International law, President Putin, Putin, Ukraine
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Although the law could and should be clearer, it seems that, on the law as it stands in South Africa at present, if President Putin visited South Africa, there would be an obligation on South African officials to arrest him and surrender him to the ICC.
Police’s limited licence to kill
Posted: 7th April 2017 by James Grant in Criminal Law, Education, ZumaComments Off on Police’s limited licence to kill
The extent of force permitted in effecting and arrest is different to the extent of force permitted in private defence. An arrest serves one legitimate purpose only: to secure attendance of a suspect at court to answer to a charge. The purpose of the right to use force in private defence is to protect person […]
Crimen injuria of groups
Posted: 7th January 2016 by James Grant in EducationTags: #PennySparrow, #Racismmustfall, #Racismwillfall, crimen injuria, criminal law.
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There is some suggestion that charges of crimen injuria for the racist insults of Penny Sparrow (and others) cannot attract liability in criminal law in SA because crimen injuria requires the relevant insult to be directed at an individual rather than a group. Crimen injuria is defined as the intentional unlawful impairment of the dignity […]
Marikana: the missing links
Posted: 4th July 2015 by James Grant in EducationTags: common purpose, Farlam, marikana, murder
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The recommendation of the Farlam commission that some police members can only be charged with attempted murder because it could not be proved which officers had shot which miner is, on the law as it stands, wrong. It is important to extract the facts that this recommendation appears to concede: that these officers unlawfully fired […]
Unsuccessful Attempts to Justify Judge Masipa’s Errors (Revised & Expanded)
Posted: 28th September 2014 by James Grant in EducationTags: dolus eventualis, error in objecto, Masipa, Pistorius, Reeva Steenkamp
*** This is a revised and substantially expanded version of the post “Unsuccessful attempts to Justify Judge Masipa’s Errors”. It is organised around themes rather than individual commentators. *** Introduction There is something deeply disturbing about many of the attempts that have been made to justify Judge Masipa’s judgment in the Pistorius case. They seem […]
Evidence of ‘bad character’ and ‘prior bad acts’*
Posted: 5th March 2014 by James Grant in EducationTags: character evidence, criminal law, disposition, evidence, murder, Pistorius, prior bad acts, similar fact evidence
Many spectacular and sensational claims have been levelled at Oscar Pistorius in the media: that he has a bad temper, threated to break someone’s legs, is obsessed with firearms, fired a gun out of his sunroof, and another in a restaurant, was in illegal possession of ammunition and browsed pornographic websites on the night that […]