The Grace of Pardon within the Framework of Angola’s Constitutional and Criminal Body of Law

Some Thoughts Occasioned by a Case at Bar

Abstract

The pardon—an act of grace or clemency of an administrative nature with penal effect, long established in the constitutional and criminal-law traditions of numerous legal systems—has recently given rise, in the Angolan judicial context, to renewed reflection on its meaning and scope, prompted by a concrete case falling within the ambit of a pardon granted by the President of the Republic. This in turn raised fresh questions concerning the precise distinction between the various acts of grace provided for in the Constitution and in criminal law, particularly as regards the competence and legitimacy to grant them, their effects on the admissibility of criminal proceedings, on the sentence imposed, and on the very punishability of the specific conduct in question. The case under analysis further prompted urgent inquiry into whether the beneficiary of a pardon may lawfully refuse it, and into the possibility of benefiting from a pardon while constitutional proceedings were still pending following a ruling of the Constitutional Court delivered in extraordinary review proceedings.