NIGERIA AND ARGENTINA CRIMINAL LAW: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS

NIGERIA AND ARGENTINA CRIMINAL LAW: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

THE NIGERIA CRIMINAL LAW

The Criminal Law is the principal law on crimes. It is not contained in any single statute book or even a fend. This tends to suggest that a good way to study the criminal law is  to study one statute after another. This may prove difficult because the catalogue of Criminal Law has not been compiled, nor is any attempt being made. Since the Criminal Law is all about crime, a better approach may be to study one crime after another. The number of acts and omissions that are forbidden by Criminal Law are inexustable. More are still being created directly or indirectly few are de-criminalised.  The existing ones  are either expanded or contracted in extent and scope through judicial interpretation.

There may be another approach. Form the works of earlier writers,  it may be possible  to isolate certain features that may be common or different in a majority of crimes and make those features the subject of study.  This is the approach adopted in this course.

The Criminal Law is a reflection of the fundamental character and intellectual life of the society in which it operates. Customary Criminal Law once prevailed but It was largely unwritten. It has given way to written law. Thus Customary Criminal Law has remained part of the law of crime to the extent it is written.

This course consists of 21 Units of study and adequately takes care of the conveniences of the students whom we know are working and at the same time learning. This Course Guide offers you in a nutshell, what the Criminal Law is about:  it gives you an insight  into the course materials which have been deliberately compressed in order to ensure that you are able to cover as much as possible within the given period.

THE ARGENTINA CRIMINAL LAW

The Argentine nation adopts for its democratic government the Representative, Republican and Federal form. It is representative because the country is governed by representatives of the people. It is republican because people elect their representatives through vote, because the country is governed by a tripartite system made up of an Executive Power, a Legislative Power, and a Judicial Power, and because Argentina adopts a written Constitution. Finally, it is federal because the provincial governments keep their self-rule despite responding to a common government (The National government). The nation adopts this form of government as established by the National Constitution[1], passed on 1853.

This text was modified in 1860 when the province of Buenos Aires is included, since it was not part of the Argentine Confederation in 1953. Then, in 1949, a constitutional convention replaced the 1853/1860 text for a new one which was rendered null and void by the provincial government through the April 27, 1956 proclamation that replaced the previous text. The National Convention approved the constitutional reforms on August 22, 1994 which became effective on August 24, 1994.

These reforms refer, fundamentally, to the organic part of the Constitution. The Argentine Republic comprises 23 provinces and the city of Buenos Aires. The provinces are Buenos Aires, Catamarca, Corrientes, Córdoba, Chaco, Chubut, Entre Ríos, Formosa, Jujuy, La Pampa, La Rioja, Mendoza, Misiones, Neuquén, Río Negro, Salta, San Juan, San Luis, Santa Cruz, Santa Fe, Santiago del Estero, Tucumán, and Tierra del Fuego.

Each province has its own constitution which must state its administration of justice and municipal autonomy, and the scope and content of its institutional, political, administrative and financial orders.

Each province also elects its own authorities: Governor, Legislators and other provincial officers. They dictate their regional legislation through local institutions and are entitled to enter into international agreements as long as they abide by the national foreign policy and do not affect the Federal government faculties or the National public credit. Likewise, they are allowed to enter into partial treaties supported by the Federal government for the purposes of justice administration, economic interests and public interest works.

Provinces shall not execute partial treaties on political matters, enact commercial, interior or exterior navigation laws, set up provincial customs, mint currency, set up banks with bill issuance power without the Federal government authorization, dictate the Civil, Commercial, Criminal and Mining codes after being approved by the Congress, pass laws related to citizenship and naturalization, bankruptcy, currency forgery or state documents, establish tonnage rights or set up warship, neither shall they appoint or receive foreign agents.

The constitutional legal code established for the Argentine nation, since 1853, the above-mentioned form of government, divided into the executive, legislative and judicial powers.