Abstract

A judgment of a trial court in a criminal case in Cameroon is the decision of the Court that disposes of the charge or a committal order and renders the Court functus officio. This paves the way for any of the parties to file a notice of appeal to challenge the judgment or, failing that, to cause it to be executed. A judgment is, however, not only the explanation of the position of the Court: it is also a means of proving that due process was respected during a trial. In order to render it regular, a Court decision should contain adequate proof of compliance with the mandatory formalities required by law. This is because failure to mention that these formalities were accomplished leads to the presumption of their violation. The legal instruments regulating the form and contents of a judgment in a criminal case before a trial court in Cameroon are Law No 2005/007 of 27 July 2005 instituting the Criminal Procedure Code, Law No 2006/015 of 29 December 2006 on Judicial Organization, as amended and supplemented by Law No 2011/027 of 14 December 2011, and Law No 2016/7 of 12 July 2016 relating to the Cameroon Penal Code. Translation from French into English is at times faulty, inaccurate and misleading. The absence of the precise form and contents of a judgment under the Code D’Instruction Criminelle and the Criminal Procedure Ordinance has been a major setback in writing judgments and, therefore, in the absence of a unique format, recourse has to be made to the good practices of writing judgments. In this regard, the unification of laws and the inception of the Criminal Procedure Code has resolved many problems. This article reveals that a proper judgment has three parts: the introduction or heading, the evaluation of evidence or reason, and the verdict. It recommends that these should be read in open court and should have a suit number at the beginning and end with orders, a reminder to the parties of their right of appeal, an executory formula and signatures. Therefore, any judgment shy of all the parts and contents as analysed in this article will be an absolute nullity.