ABSTRACT
O. W. Holmes held that the result of a case depended upon ‘the inarticulate major premise’ of the judge, at least in matters of first impression—that is cases in which the judges must determine for the first time what is the operative rule of law. The common law of crimes was developed to meet the emergent demands of England, mainly in the nineteenth century. The purpose of the criminal law is to protect society. It protects society in the main by punishing criminals as examples to the rest of the community. Customary law—the law that governed the African people before the advent of colonialism—expresses the spirit of the African people, just as every system of law expresses the spirit of the community from which it springs. The subjects of the law are treated fairly when the law is applied with absolute, even-handed precision; not for nothing is Justice invariably portrayed as the blind goddess.
