Friday, August 25, 2006

Checking the foundations

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On this, the second anniversary of the start of this blogsite, when I am about to comment on a case where the meaning of "beyond reason...
Thursday, August 24, 2006

The absolute right to a fair trial

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The Supreme Court of New Zealand has accepted that the accused’s right to a fair trial is absolute, that breach of this right is a substanti...
Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Public debates on admissibility

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Should the courts encourage public discussion of judicial decisions about the admissibility of evidence? This is one of the important questi...
Monday, July 31, 2006

Reverse onus in the House of Lords

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While we in New Zealand await our Supreme Court’s decision in Hansen v R , which will decide the standard of proof placed on the accused by ...
Friday, July 28, 2006

Differences in principle and pragmatism

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Appellate judges often disagree over whether an error at trial caused a substantial miscarriage of justice. Finding himself in a minority of...
Friday, July 21, 2006

Fairer than you may want

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The right to a fair trial is a right that the accused cannot waive. This may seem a strange statement: why would the accused ever want to wa...
Thursday, July 20, 2006

Public privacy

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Courts may disagree over whether language is “grossly” offensive. In DPP v Collins [2006] UKHL 40 (19 July 2006) the House of Lords unanimou...
Friday, June 30, 2006

Our case against you is secret ...

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No one could be surprised that included in the guarantees recognised as indispensable by civilised peoples are the right, when on trial, to ...
Wednesday, June 28, 2006

The Ellis case and trial fairness

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For a draft paper on the trial of Peter Ellis for sexual offending at the Christchurch Civic Creche, see my web site, and follow the links t...
Thursday, June 15, 2006

A look at torts ...

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During this strangely extended lacuna between interesting criminal cases around the world, we have a moment to glance at yesterday’s decisio...
Thursday, May 04, 2006

Inchoate offences and the scope of mens rea

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We have already noted the Supreme Court’s decision in L v R (see blog for 3 April 2006), in which the mental elements of an attempt to comm...
Wednesday, May 03, 2006

Thou art far more fair than she ...

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Is Australian criminal law really fairer than New Zealand’s? In Moloney v New Zealand [2006] FCA 438 (21 April 2006) (blogged here on 1 May ...
Monday, May 01, 2006

A difference of reasonable minds

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Fairness can be a very difficult matter to agree on, as is demonstrated in cases where judges have differed among themselves: see, for illus...
Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Public policy and degrees of misconduct

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Public policy exclusion of evidence is sometimes still spoken of by courts as if it was a means of protecting the accused’s right to a fair ...

Seeing and believing

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Eyewitness identification evidence may need to be treated with some circumspection, and juries are usually given a direction on the special ...
Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Balancing "cogency" of wrongfully obtained evidence

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Simmons v R (Bahamas) [2006] UKPC 19 (3 April 2006) gives us an opportunity to highlight the distinction between "fairness" when ...
Monday, April 03, 2006

You may not get what you want ...

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The crime of attempting to commit a crime has come under scrutiny in L v R [2006] NZSC 18 (30 March 2006), which concerned the state of min...
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...