Monday, May 28, 2007

Hearsay confessions

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A particularly tricky problem in evidence law is how to deal with the admissibility of hearsay confessions. These occur when a witness for t...
Thursday, May 24, 2007

Hidden badness

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An attack by an accused on the character of a prosecution witness, especially a complainant, may result in the court being informed of the a...
Friday, May 11, 2007

Howse of discontent

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Another case (in addition to Bain , also decided on 10 May 2007, see blog below) in which a Court of Appeal thought that the case against th...

Justices Marple, Holmes and Poirot

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Stating the law is one thing, applying it another. An appellate court may be able correctly to state the way it should approach the question...
Friday, May 04, 2007

Disorderly rights

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Offences of disorderly behaviour, involving the simplest of facts, can provide the basis for interminable disputation among jurists. This af...
Thursday, April 26, 2007

Multiple intents

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When does an agreement to do one specific unlawful thing extend to encompass the doing of another unlawful thing? And when does a lawful pur...
Friday, April 06, 2007

Judging the gatekeeper

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In Wizzard v R (Jamaica) [2007] UKPC 21 (29 March 2007) the Privy Council was reminded of the decision of the House of Lords in R v Mushtaq...
Friday, March 23, 2007

Inferences

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An area of the law of evidence that has long been a subject of discussion and confusion is the drawing of inferences. In R v Hillier [2007]...
Thursday, March 22, 2007

The third way

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For an interesting study in how the most senior judges can differ over problems in criminal law, one need go no further than yesterday’s dec...
Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Lurking doubts

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Recently the Privy Council has reminded us of the appropriate way to approach the question whether there has been a substantial miscarriage ...
Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Trial by unjust law

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Today’s decision by our Supreme Court, Hansen v R [2007] NZSC 7 (20 February 2007), holds that some trials are conducted under law that is ...
Thursday, February 08, 2007

How satisfying was that!

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The High Court of Australia has, this week, held that the requirement that a judge be “satisfied” of something (here, the appropriateness of...
Monday, February 05, 2007

Appeal verdicts

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How should an appellate court decide whether a verdict is safe? It is difficult to find agreement among senior appellate judges on the safet...
Friday, February 02, 2007

Reliability and relevance

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Concealed within the requirement that evidence, to be admissible, must be relevant, is a threshold of reliability. It is a fundamental princ...
Friday, January 26, 2007

Propensity and logic

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For my observations on the admissibility of propensity (similar fact) evidence under the Evidence Act 2006[NZ], in the light of Bayes' T...
Friday, January 19, 2007

Stare decisis in the European Court

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Some interesting points are illustrated in Young v United Kingdom [2007] ECHR 48 (16 January 2007). A prisoner was found to have been denie...
Thursday, January 11, 2007

To speak, or not to speak?

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For my observations on advising clients whether to talk to the police,  Click here.  
Friday, January 05, 2007

Improperly obtained evidence

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For my observations on the new provision in the Evidence Act 2006[NZ] concerning the discretion to exclude improperly obtained evidence, Cli...
Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Observations on hearsay

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For my observations on the new hearsay provisions of the Evidence Act 2006[NZ], Click here.  
Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Deceit from a distance

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Today our Supreme Court held that a person who, outside New Zealand, causes a copy of a document to be created in this country (here, by sen...
Monday, December 18, 2006

Extended secondary liability

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To be guilty of serious crime you must intend to do the prohibited thing. Intention is the fundamental requirement for liability. Those two ...
Friday, December 15, 2006

Reliability and hearsay

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Yesterday, the Supreme Court of Canada made some observations on hearsay that are relevant to issues that will arise in New Zealand under ou...
Monday, December 11, 2006

The balance of probabilities

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Sometimes, cases that are not quite interesting enough to warrant a blog entry here, nevertheless contain dicta that are worth noting. Such...
Monday, December 04, 2006

Attempting to conspire

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A good example of a policy decision about the scope of criminal law comes from the Supreme Court of Canada in R v Dery [2006] SCC 53 (23 No...