
Oscar Pistorius initially appeared in a local magistrate’s court, his bail hearing was in the regional court and his murder trial in the High Court.
As we have had quite a few queries over the last week about aspects of Criminal Law; we have decided to do a few blogs on various aspects of Criminal Law.
Firstly; it is important to understand that there are two large bodies of our law.
- Criminal Law and
- Civil Law.
Broadly speaking a criminal case is one where the accused is charged by the State in respect of a crime and Civil Law is the law as it is applied to different people and legal entities. To use an example for illustration: A is charged with Drunk Driving. The case is “The State (the Government, in fact, on behalf of the people of the country) versus A. “This is a criminal case and is heard in one of the criminal courts in the country.