Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Good character again

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Once again, see Index, the topic of the significance of absence of a good character direction has concerned the Privy Council: Gilbert v R (...
Tuesday, March 28, 2006

Two points of conduct

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In Ebanks v R (Cayman Islands) [2006] UKPC 16 (27 March 2006) the Privy Council reminded us of a couple of fundamental points: - when a clie...
Thursday, March 23, 2006

School Rules, OK!

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Yesterday, the House of Lords decided Begum v Denbigh High School [2006] UKHL 15 (22 March 2006), a case that has some bearing on how a pro...
Friday, March 17, 2006

Rights and Power

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This week’s decision of the European Court of Human Rights (Fourth Section) concerning Application no. 23276/04 by Saddam Hussein draws our...
Thursday, March 16, 2006

Legality v Common sense

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Should one feel sorry for a person who, having served a sentence of imprisonment, has his convictions quashed on appeal because the evidence...
Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Inferences of innocence

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A commonly advanced ground of appeal against conviction is that the evidence supported an inference of innocence and the judge did not corre...
Monday, March 13, 2006

Metaphysical laws

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Can the law have been other than it was understood to have been at the time? If it can, are we currently operating under a misunderstanding ...
Thursday, March 09, 2006

What a "fair trial" means

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Today, the High Court of Australia decided Nudd v R [2006] HCA 9 (9 March 2006), a case with helpful dicta on the meaning of "fair tria...
Thursday, March 02, 2006

Bad technique!

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Sometimes, evidence that the accused has been convicted for committing other offences is admissible to prove that he committed the offence ...
Monday, February 20, 2006

Overcoming the void

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As everyone knows, the law of Scotland has its origins in Roman-Dutch law. Its technical language can look a little strange to English juris...
Friday, February 17, 2006

The "overarching requirement" of fairness

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The interrelationship between the requirements that statements be made voluntarily, and that trials be fair, was central to the unanimous de...
Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Easy does it!

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The Supreme Court’s decision in Thompson v R [2006] SCNZ 3 (15 February 2006), in which answers to questions at trial were held not to have...
Thursday, February 09, 2006

Rushing to judgment

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Cutting to the chase in trials can look unfair. Where legal submissions are necessary, judges may be tempted to deal with them peremptorily,...
Friday, January 27, 2006

Fingered!

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What makes fingerprint evidence interesting is the increasing unlikelihood that we all have different fingerprints. This, at least, is what ...
Tuesday, January 24, 2006

Index to these blog entries

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To access my Index to all the entries on this blogsite, up to the end of the last month, click on the link on the right.

Recklessness

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What does "reckless" mean? Where a person can be guilty of a crime if he has acted with a state of mind called "recklessness...
Monday, January 23, 2006

Illegal acquittals

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Objections to the power proposed to be given to the prosecution, in some circumstances, to appeal against acquittals, are usually advanced o...
Friday, January 20, 2006

Three major themes

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Three topics of general interest were touched upon by the Privy Council in Grant v R (Jamaica) [2006] UKPC 2 (17 January 2006): (1) the int...
Monday, January 16, 2006

Revising history

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Where a trial has, in the opinion of an appellate court, involved a miscarriage of justice, the appeal against conviction should be allowed,...