Book Review: Criminal Procedure Casebook by Kemp, Watney and Terblanche

Reviewed by Louis Rood.

First published in 2010, this second edition of Criminal Procedure Casebook combines in an essential toolkit a selection of 102 of the leading judgments of our courts that illuminate the most important processes and principles of South African criminal procedure.

Legal practitioners and judicial officers will welcome the bilingual approach adopted. Each judgment extract is preceded by a summary of the case facts in English and Afrikaans. These extracts are followed by notes commenting on the judgment, in both Afrikaans and English. These brief but critical notes deal with the judgement in its proper context, explaining the relevance and importance of the judgment. All Afrikaans judgments and Afrikaans quotations in English judgments are accompanied by an English translation.

This smörgåsbord of cases can effectively be used as a companion to Juta’s Criminal Procedure Handbook (12th edition) edited by Prof J J Joubert.

Separate chapters include cases dealing with every stage of the criminal process, including arrest, bail, plea and sentence agreements, sentencing, review and appeal. This edition also deals with topics such as undue delays in criminal matters, child justice, the accused’s capacity to understand and comprehend proceedings, and the impact of international co-operation in criminal matters.

The co-authors, all Advocates of the High Court of South Africa, are Gerhard Kemp BA LLB LLM LLD ILSC, Professor of Law at Stellenbosch University, Murdoch Watney BA LLB LLM LLD, Professor and Head of the Department of Law at the University of Johannesburg, and Stephan Terblanche B Iuris LLB LLD, Professor of Law in the Department of Criminal and Procedural Law at the University of South Africa. Their individual and combined expertise, all marshalled with the finesse of legal publisher Juta, has produced a true go-to resource in the dynamic and ever-evolving field of criminal procedure. It has been said that in criminal law How is as important as What. This casebook goes to the heart of that truism.