Browsing by Author "Leeman, Solly"

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    A critical analysis of the doctrine of common purpose: special reference to South Africa, Zimbabwe, England and New South Wales
    (1996) Munangati, Nyaradzo Priscilla; Leeman, Solly
    The aim of this paper is to examine the application of the doctrine of common purpose. The jurisdictions of South Africa, Zimbabwe, England and New South Wales have been chosen as points of reference, as the doctrine is still used by the prosecution in these jurisdictions in handling criminal matters where there is more than one defendant or accused person participating in the same unlawful enterprise. Most interesting is the fact that, these jurisdictions often refer to and rely on the decisions of each other, and sometimes even adopt the laws of the other jurisdiction to form part of the domestic law. This is apparent between South Africa and Zimbabwe; Zimbabwe and England; and England and New South Wales. Zimbabwe has shown a tendency to rely on South African law on common purpose as South Africa has managed to refine its laws on common purpose over the years. While South Africa would not hesitate to refer to Zimbabwean decisions as persuasive authority especially on the issue of dissociation, it is reluctant to refer directly to English law on dissociation. The irony however lies in the fact that, the Zimbabwean law on dissociation was in fact adopted from England without any changes at all and is in fact English law in all respects. This will become clear as one reads through this work. New South Wales law on. both common purpose and dissociation has been greatly influenced by English law, in fact, the law on dissociation is purely English law which was adopted. However, New South Wales stands out above the rest of the jurisdictions in so far as it distinguishes between "foundational crime" and "incidental crime" when dealing with offences perpetrated by parties to a common purpose. The whole legal scenario makes the examination of the application of the common purpose doctrine in the four jurisdictions not only interesting but exciting as well. It will be noted that in South Africa legal scholars have shown considerable zeal and interest in examining and dealing with issues pertaining to the application of the doctrine. Quite a number of articles by South African scholars are referred. to in this paper. Some of the articles were prompted by court decisions made in matters involving political unrest during the apartheid era, while others were written purely as a matter of scholarly academic interest. Unfortunately for Zimbabwe there are very, very few articles on the issue, and hence for the purpose of this paper there was heavy reliance on case law. As regards England and New South Wales, fairly recently published books were of invaluable assistance as they gave the most up to date information on how the doctrine of common purpose operates in England and in New South Wales. Case law was also heavily relied on. The paper not only relates how the doctrine has been perceived in each of the three jurisdictions but, there was also an attempt to display how the doctrine works, how issues of conduct and the mental element are dealt with,and finally any concerns which either the courts, the legal scholars or the writer find themselves confronted with.
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    Open Access
    A critical analysis of the doctrine of common purpose: special reference to South Africa, Zimbabwe, England and New South Wales
    (1996) Munangati, Nyaradzo Priscilla; Leeman, Solly
    The aim of this paper is to examine the application of the doctrine of common purpose. The jurisdictions of South Africa, Zimbabwe, England and New South Wales have been chosen as points of reference, as the doctrine is still used by the prosecution in these jurisdictions in handling criminal matters where there is more than one defendant or accused person participating in the same unlawful enterprise. Most interesting is the fact that, these jurisdictions often refer to and rely on the decisions of each other, and sometimes even adopt the laws of the other jurisdiction to form part of the domestic law. This is apparent between South Africa and Zimbabwe; Zimbabwe and England; and England and New South Wales. Zimbabwe has shown a tendency to rely on South African law on common purpose as South Africa has managed to refine its laws on common purpose over the years. While South Africa would not hesitate to refer to Zimbabwean decisions as persuasive authority especially on the issue of dissociation, it is reluctant to refer directly to English law on dissociation. The irony however lies in the fact that, the Zimbabwean law on dissociation was in fact adopted from England without any changes at all and is in fact English law in all respects. This will become clear as one reads through this work. New South Wales law on. both common purpose and dissociation has been greatly influenced by English law, in fact, the law on dissociation is purely English law which was adopted. However, New South Wales stands out above the rest of the jurisdictions in so far as it distinguishes between "foundational crime" and "incidental crime" when dealing with offences perpetrated by parties to a common purpose. The whole legal scenario makes the examination of the application of the common purpose doctrine in the four jurisdictions not only interesting but exciting as well. It will be noted that in South Africa legal scholars have shown considerable zeal and interest in examining and dealing with issues pertaining to the application of the doctrine. Quite a number of articles by South African scholars are referred. to in this paper. Some of the articles were prompted by court decisions made in matters involving political unrest during the apartheid era, while others were written purely as a matter of scholarly academic interest. Unfortunately for Zimbabwe there are very, very few articles on the issue, and hence for the purpose of this paper there was heavy reliance on case law. As regards England and New South Wales, fairly recently published books were of invaluable assistance as they gave the most up to date information on how the doctrine of common purpose operates in England and in New South Wales. Case law was also heavily relied on. The paper not only relates how the doctrine has been perceived in each of the three jurisdictions but, there was also an attempt to display how the doctrine works, how issues of conduct and the mental element are dealt with,and finally any concerns which either the courts, the legal scholars or the writer find themselves confronted with.
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    Open Access
    The Law of International Trade: copyright law related aspects of the use of the internet from a German perspective in comparison to South African Legislation and jurisdiction
    (2000) Muller-Broich, Jan D; Leeman, Solly
    Today, the Internet cannot be described any more as a new technology, even though it is still growing and new features are constantly invented and added. The Internet is now in constant daily use by millions of users all over the world. However, as it could be observed many times before, legal developments find it difficult to hold pace with the technical development. That is especially true in regard to copyright law and the use of the Internet. Although computer programs and their specific requirements are now renown internationally by many legal system, so far there are little regulations which deal with the specific demands of the Internet use. However, efforts in that direction are undertaken, but the outcome is still uncertain. In Germany, first serious efforts to tackle the legal problems of the Internet could be observed in 1996, but only in the recent two years a large number of publications dealing with different problems in that regard were made available to the public. The situation in South Africa is somewhat different. Only little publication in that regard could so far be found. Often, for whatever reason, problems are actually more pointed out than an effort is made to provide an answer. Still though, one will actually find, that many problems can be discussed in an international context regardless to the exact provisions of a certain legal order. The following work will therefore compare the German and South African legislation and jurisdiction in regard to copyright related aspects of the Internet. Although one will observe that more room is given to the German point of view, it is to hope that this will at the same time serve as a source of inspiration to the South African lawyer. The final aim, however, should be to harmonise internationally rules in that regard, so that no legal order is to prevail or, to put it into other words, the aim is to make the law as 'international' as the Internet itself.