The Legal Concept of Arresting the Accused and the Limits of the Use of Force During its Implementation: A Comparative Study between the Kuwaiti and American Criminal Procedures Laws

Dr Yousef Haji Al Mutairi
Associate Professor of Criminal Law
Department of Law, College of Business Studies,
PAAET, State of Kuwait

Abstract:

This study deals with the arrest of the accused, and the limits of the use of force during the arrest, which is one of the important topics in the Code of Criminal Procedure. The importance of this issue arises because it affects individual freedom. Because of this importance, legislators have encircled it with many constitutional and legal guarantees that ensure respect for his human privacy and not to infringe upon it except through texts specifying the nature and conditions of the procedure and the persons authorized to do so. Therefore, state constitutions ensure that personal freedom must be surrounded by a strong, solid fence of legal guarantees so that it may not be infringed upon except in specific circumstances specified in the law, and for one goal, which is to reveal the truth in the case.
This study adopted the descriptive comparative approach between the legal rules in the Kuwaiti Code of Criminal Procedure and American Federal Law, and State laws regarding the concept and procedures for arresting the accused, and the limits of the use of force – by a police officer – to overcome the resistance of the arrested person in the event that the accused resists the arrest process, in addition to highlighting the rulings of the US Supreme Court in this regard.
Although the Criminal Procedure Code, in both Kuwait and the United States of America, regulates how the arrest of the accused is carried out, the American law was more comprehensive on this issue. Over the course of a century, the US Supreme Court added many procedures to complete the process of implementing the arrest of the accused.
Keywords: US Supreme Court, Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution, use of force, arrest enforcement, human rights.

Read Full PDF Text (Arabic)