The Evolution of Criminal Law and Procedure in Sierra Leone from Colonial Inheritance to Contemporary Reforms and International Accountability (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798256186050)

The Evolution of Criminal Law and Procedure in Sierra Leone: From Colonial Inheritance to Contemporary Reforms and International Accountability

Edited by Abdul Tejan-Cole and Ibrahim Sorie Yillah

This landmark volume offers the first comprehensive treatment of the criminal law and procedure of Sierra Leone, tracing its journey from the colonial courts of the nineteenth century to the sweeping reforms introduced by the Criminal Procedure Act 2024. Nineteen substantive chapters, written by leading Sierra Leonean jurists, practitioners and scholars, examine every dimension of the contemporary criminal justice system with the rigour and depth that students, practitioners, judges and policymakers demand.

The volume opens with the foundational architecture of the legal system, examining the plural legal order in which customary law, Islamic law and the received common law coexist, and the constitutional framework that governs their interaction. Subsequent chapters address the full procedural landscape: police powers, arrest, bail, search and seizure, pre-trial detention, and the landmark bail jurisprudence of the High Court. The evidence framework, the abolition of jury trial, the Legal Aid Act 2012, the rights of children and young persons, and the constitutional fair-trial guarantees each receive dedicated scholarly treatment.

The volume then turns to the substantive criminal law, with chapters on the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Attorney-General, plea bargaining and alternative sentencing, treason and high-profile political trials, and the gender-transformative provisions of the Sexual Offences Act 2012. The Sierra Leone Special Court legacy, United States sanctions on the International Criminal Court, and the place of alternative dispute resolution in the criminal justice system are examined alongside the implementation challenges that the new procedural framework presents.

Written in British English and grounded in Sierra Leonean statute, case law and comparative Commonwealth authority, this volume is an essential reference for every lawyer, judge, academic and student working in or studying the Sierra Leonean legal system, and a significant contribution to the broader literature on criminal law and justice reform in Anglophone Africa.