DETERMINATION OF CRIMINAL RESPONSIBILITY USING THE OEDIPUS SCENERY AS A CASE STUDY

Abstract

Just like Lon Fuller’s Speluncean Explorers portray the seemingly impossibility of separating the two streams ofever flowing water that may not meet in the realm of legal jurisprudence, to wit, the positivists’ and the normativeschool of thoughts. On the similar vein, Oedipus underscores the inevitability of deterministic inclinations onone’s life. Oedipus was destined and determined to kill his father and marry his mother which against all odds toavert it came into reality. Consequently, this scholarly investigation is aimed at the identification of the offencesemanating from the acts of Oedipus in fulfilling the dictates of nature, and to juxtapose same into judicialexamination under the provisions of section 24 of the Criminal Code, to the effect that a person is not criminallyresponsible for acts or omissions which are independent of the person’s will. Hence, it therefore follows, that theadvancements and advocacies in philosophical determinism can be used in the determination of criminalresponsibility of a defendant standing criminal trial. In bringing this herculean task into practical reality, metaanalyticalstyles and doctrinal methods of academic investigation were adopted to buttress the intendment of thepaper.