Appraising the Disparity in the Granting of Bail in the Common Law and Civil Law Jurisdictions of Cameroon: A Practice-Based Perspective

Abstract

This paper examines the granting of bail in criminal litigations in the Common law and Civil law jurisdictions of Cameroon, an evaluation from a practice-based perspective. Bail which is temporal liberty granted to suspects, accused persons and defendants during criminal litigation is one of the novelty introduced especially to the Civil law jurisdiction of Cameroon. Bail is a right on its own and a right associated by other rights such as the right to freedom, fair trial and presumption of innocence which are all human rights protected by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the African Charter of Human and People’s right. Under domestic law, bail is protected by the by the CPC and the law on Judicial Organization of Cameroon. The harmonized Criminal Procedure Code of 2005 makes provisions for three types of bails, namely; Self-bail, Conditional bail and bail on surety. However, it has been observed that the exist a disparity in the manner in which bail processed within the Common law and Civil law jurisdictions in Cameroon, whereas the laws revaluating bail is harmonized and of general application. This paper investigations the reasons of such a disparity and make relevant recommendations.