Essay
Why a society has law
'Without law there is no society, only a contest of strength.' Discuss, with reference to the functions of law in Sierra Leone.
issue
Whether law is only a set of punishments, or a set of rules that also orders competing interests, protects rights and ends disputes.
rule
Law is a body of binding rules backed by authority. Its functions include regulating competing interests, keeping order, sanctioning breach, protecting rights, resolving disputes and deterring crime. Constitution of Sierra Leone 1991, sections 28 and 171(15).
application
The slogan is half true. A society without enforceable rules leaves the stronger person free to take, and the lectures are right that theft and violence would then be private power. But law is not only fear of punishment. Chapter III states rights, and section 28 gives the High Court a procedure when they are broken. A landlord and a tenant, or an employer and an employee, need a rule before anyone is punished. Section 171(15) also shows that not every command is law: a rule inconsistent with the Constitution does not prevail. An answer that lists only deterrence misses the rights and the disputes.
conclusion
Law is necessary for a society that is more than a contest of strength. It orders competing claims and protects rights, and the sanction is one part of that work, not the whole of it.
Essay
Is the Constitution the only source that matters?
'Section 170 of the Constitution of Sierra Leone makes the Constitution the only source of law that a court need consult.' Discuss.
issue
Whether section 170 reduces every other source to a footnote, or lists several sources of which the Constitution is the highest.
rule
Section 170(1) lists the Constitution, Acts and instruments, existing law and the common law. Section 170(2) puts common-law rules, equity and customary law inside the common law. Section 74 of the Courts Act 1965 receives English common law, equity and statutes of general application in force on 1 January 1880. Section 171(15) gives the Constitution supremacy where there is a conflict. Precedent binds lower courts. Textbooks do not bind.
application
The proposition confuses supremacy with exclusivity. If a custom and a Chapter III right conflict, the Constitution wins. That does not mean a court trying a contractual debt, a customary marriage or a larceny charge can ignore the Act, the received statute and the cases. The Larceny Act 1916 and the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 are still consulted because section 74 and section 170 keep received law alive until a local Act replaces it. A textbook may explain those Acts. It cannot replace them.
conclusion
The Constitution is the highest source, not the only source. Section 170 is a list. Supremacy decides a conflict inside the list. It does not empty the list.
Problem
Four claims from one evening
After a fight in a Freetown shop, the police charge Musa with wounding. The shopkeeper sues Musa for the broken window. Musa's employer dismisses him and Musa sues for wrongful dismissal. A foreign supplier then sues Musa in Freetown on a contract made in England. Classify each claim.
issue
Which classifications, public or private, criminal or civil, substantive or procedural, and which subject, fit each claim?
rule
Criminal law is a public-law wrong prosecuted by the state. Civil claims are brought by the person aggrieved. Contract, tort and employment rights are private-law subjects. A foreign element calls for private international law, which is still the forum's own rules. Procedure is a separate question from the right.
application
The wounding charge is criminal and public. The state prosecutes. The broken window is a civil claim in tort, private law, about a substantive right to the goods and the premises. Wrongful dismissal is a civil claim, private law, in employment or contract. The supplier's action is also civil and private, in contract, but the English place of contracting raises private international law: which law, and whether the Freetown court is the right court. None of these four is a question of procedure until someone asks about evidence, time limits or the court. One evening can produce all of them. Classification is not a single label for the whole story.
conclusion
Charge the crime as crime. Sue the civil wrongs as civil wrongs. Use private international law only for the foreign contract. Do not call the whole evening either criminal or civil.
Problem
Acquitted, and then sued
The State fails to prove that Abu wounded Binta. He is acquitted. Binta then sues him for the same wound. Abu says the acquittal ends the matter, and that Binta must prove the claim beyond reasonable doubt. Advise Binta.
issue
Whether an acquittal bars a civil claim on the same facts, and what Binta must prove.
rule
Woolmington v DPP [1935] AC 462 and section 23(4): the prosecution must prove guilt beyond reasonable doubt, as explained in Miller v Minister of Pensions [1947] 2 All ER 372. A civil claimant proves the facts on the balance of probabilities. The aims differ. The state punishes. The claimant seeks compensation or another civil order. An acquittal is not a finding that a later civil claim must fail.
application
Binta does not prosecute. She sues. She does not have to reach Miller's criminal standard, and she does not have to satisfy Woolmington. She must show it is more likely than not that Abu caused the wound and that a tort is made out. Abu's acquittal shows only that the state did not prove the crime beyond reasonable doubt. The O J Simpson proceedings are a foreign illustration of the same split, not an authority in Freetown. If Binta proves her case, the remedy is civil, usually damages, not a sentence. The death penalty is irrelevant in any event after the Abolition of the Death Penalty Act 2021.
conclusion
Binta may sue. She proves the tort on the balance of probabilities. The acquittal does not decide her claim.
Problem
Three files on the registrar's desk
A paramount chief's family disputes a customary debt in a chiefdom. A man charged with murder is committed after a preliminary investigation. A citizen asks for a declaration that an Act is inconsistent with the Constitution. Which court hears each matter at first instance, and where does an appeal go?
issue
How the hierarchy allocates customary civil business, trial on indictment, and constitutional interpretation.
rule
Local Courts Act 2011 for customary matters in the provinces, with appeal to the District Appeal Court and then the Local Appeals Division of the High Court. Courts Act 1965 and section 132 for the magistrates' preliminary work and the High Court's trial of indictable offences, with appeal to the Court of Appeal under section 129. Section 124 gives the Supreme Court exclusive original jurisdiction over constitutional interpretation. Section 127 covers a declaration of inconsistency.
application
The customary debt, if the parties are subject to customary law and the claim is within the local court's statutory limit, starts in the local court. It does not start in the Supreme Court. An appeal climbs through the District Appeal Court. Murder is not tried in the local court or finally in the magistrates' court. The magistrate's preliminary investigation, if it finds a case to answer, ends in a committal. The High Court tries the indictment, with a jury where the practice requires it, and an appeal lies to the Court of Appeal and then, with leave or as of right as the law provides, to the Supreme Court. The constitutional declaration is not for the High Court as a court of unlimited common-law jurisdiction. Section 124 places original jurisdiction in the Supreme Court alone. There is no appeal inside Sierra Leone from that court.
conclusion
Local court for the customary debt, High Court for the murder trial, Supreme Court for the constitutional declaration. Do not use one court for all three.
