Monday, June 25, 2007

Unappealing confusion

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The High Court of Australia’s attempt in Weiss v R (2005) 224 CLR 300 (blogged here 16 January 2006) to clarify the law concerning the appl...
Friday, June 22, 2007

Probative value and prejudicial effect

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The discretion to exclude evidence when its probative value is outweighed by its illegitimately prejudicial effect has given rise to some di...
Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Domestic harmony and judicial disharmony

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Where a witness is not competent to be a prosecution witness without the consent of the accused, can hearsay evidence from that person never...
Monday, June 18, 2007

Clarity and obscurity

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One of the things that makes law both difficult and interesting is the shift between clarity and obscurity. Authoritative statements of the ...
Friday, June 15, 2007

The appeal of hypotheticals

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On Wednesday Kirby J in the High Court of Australia made an interesting observation on the extent to which that Court should engage in specu...
Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Bias and sensitivity

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It seems that a reasonable apprehension that the judge is biased will be sufficient grounds for a rehearing, regardless of whether the judge...
Monday, June 11, 2007

Looking overseas

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Do rights-based restrictions on acceptable evidence collecting procedures apply to officials who act outside the jurisdiction of the country...
Friday, June 08, 2007

Secret appeals

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Public interest may require that some information not be disclosed by the prosecution even though it might be of use to the defence in prepa...
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...