Deals with prosecution of alleged crimes and that

incidental thereto in a particular given society

OBJECTIVES

Better understanding of key concepts in criminal law

Prescribed reading
STATUTES

Constitution Act, Cap 1 of the laws of Zambia.

Criminal Procedure Code Act, Cap 88 of the laws of Zambia
Penal Code Act, Cap 87 of the laws of Zambia

TEXT BOOKS
Hatchard, J. and Ndulo, M., Readings in Criminal Law and Criminology in
Zambia (1994) Multimedia Publications, Lusaka.
Hatchard, J. and Ndulo, M., A case Book On Criminal Law (2008), Institute
for Public Policy Research, Lusaka.

PRINCIPLES OF CRIMINAL LIABILITY

The seven principles of criminal liability are;
i.

LEGALITY. This principle stipulates that there must be a law for there to be a crime.
It is premised on the Latin Nullum crimen sine lege which interprets no crime
without law. Legality is the moral principle in criminal law and international
criminal law that a person cannot or should not face criminal liability if there was no

ii.

law criminalising their conduct/act at the time they committed the act.
ACTUS REUS. This principle of criminal law deals with human conduct, and
stipulates that for a crime to occur there must be a blameworthy act of either

iii.

commission or omission by the accused.

CAUSATION. This principle of criminal law dictates that the blameworthy conduct
of the defendant must cause harm. Therefore, for a crime to have been committed
there should be a causal relation between the blameworthy conduct and the harm

iv.

suffered.
HARM. The principle stresses that for a crime to occur there should be harm caused
by an act to some other/thing. That is to say, for there to be a crime, an act must cause

v.

harm to some legally protected value.

MENS REA. Mens rea simply means guilty mind. This principle requires that for a
person to be criminally liable they should have a guilty or ill-intent mind to commit

vi.

the blameworthy act.

CONCURRENCE/COINCIDENCE OF ACTUS REUS & MENS REA. This legal
principle of criminal law requires that for there to be a crime there must be
concurrence between the blameworthy conduct and the guilty state of mind. That is to
say, both the intent and the act must be present at the same time. A crime is committed
only when actus Reus and mens rea concur in time. For instance, there is no burglary
if a person breaks into shelter escaping from a storm and only then steals. Only theft
and not burglary is committed because at the time of entry the person had no intent to
break in and steal.

vii.

NULLA POENA SINE LEGE. This maxim forms the legal principle discouraging
arbitrary punishment with the meaning being: no penalty without a law. Once
criminal liability has been proved, it must be established that there is a provision in
the law calling for punishment of those found guilty.

DEFINITION OF CRIMINAL LAW

Criminal law, also known as penal law, involves prosecution for an act that has been
classified as a crime. As rightly defined by Farlex, it is a body of rules and statutes that
defines conduct prohibited by government because it threatens and harms public safety and
welfare and that establishes punishments to be imposed for the commission of such acts.
CLASSIFICATION OF OFFENCES
Crimes are basically classified as either felonies or misdemeanours depending on their
respective nature and the maximum punishment that can be imposed. Felonies are serious
crimes in that they involve serious blameworthy conduct that is usually punishable by a long
term imprisonment of more than one year with hard labour or death penalty. On the other
hand, misdemeanours are minor offences by their nature thus carry a relatively lighter and
short punishment-usually simple imprisonment of less than a year. Certain misconducts like
traffic and parking infractions are considered to be lesser offences often referred to as
contravening and/or violations of criminal law.

SOURCES OF CRIMINAL LAW IN ZAMBIA

The major source of criminal law is the Zambian Constitution Act (cap1 of the laws of
Zambia). The most substantive and basic source is the penal code (Cap87 of the laws of
Zambia) operating mostly through the other source of criminal law namely the Criminal
Procedure Code (Cap88 of the laws of Zambia). Other statutory sources include various Acts
like the Anti-Gender Based Violence Act (No.1 of 2011), the Public Health Act (Cap295 of
the laws of Zambia) and the Road traffic Act (No.4 of 2008), inter alia. Other sources are
both binding and persuasive court decisions. Scholarly works by eminent authors also form
part of the sources of criminal law in Zambia.
In summary the sources of criminal law in Zambia may be classified into the following four
broad categories:
i.
ii.
iii.
iv.

The Constitution;
Statutory Law;
Court Precedents; and
Text Books.