Friday, November 23, 2007

Misuse of lies

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In a three-paragraph judgment the Supreme Court of Canada has held that “It was not open to the Court of Appeal to acquit the respondent on ...
Monday, November 19, 2007

"... anything you say may be shown on television."

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Even improperly obtained confessional statements, that are excluded from evidence at trial, may be permitted by the court to be shown on tel...
Friday, November 09, 2007

Muscles strong, but unflexed

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When the power of a legislature is limited to its territory, an intent to supply drugs outside that territory may not be within the scope of...

Impugning acquittals

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Disputes about relevance and fairness can arise over whether an accused should be able to inform the jury that he was acquitted at an earlie...
Friday, November 02, 2007

A moment's silence

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When a suspect held in police custody exercises his right to remain silent, does continued questioning amount to a breach of that right, and...
Thursday, October 25, 2007

Statutory interpretation and common law rights

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Sometimes, it is worth looking at the way courts approach the interpretation of legislation, even though that legislation may subsequently h...
Friday, October 19, 2007

Causing trouble

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Fundamental concepts in criminal law came under scrutiny in R v Kennedy [2007] UKHL 38 (17 October 2007). These were causation and secondar...
Thursday, October 18, 2007

On the Road (to extinction?)

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It is one thing to approve of the existence of trial by jury, but another to want to serve on a jury one’s self. Reluctance to serve on juri...
Friday, October 05, 2007

On being saved from one's own stupidity

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What does equality of all people under the law mean? Clearly, it means no-one is exempt from obedience to the law; but, does it also mean th...
Monday, September 03, 2007

Three for two, and two for three

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The common law may become overwrought by distinctions without a difference. On reading Tofilau v R [2007] HCA 39 (30 August 2007), one migh...

“He jests at scars that never felt a wound.”

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Romeo’s words, or similar, might have occurred to the prisoners whose claims for compensation for mistreatment in prison were under the scru...
Friday, August 24, 2007

An appeal subtle but strong

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It is unusual for an appellant (the accused at trial) to be able to establish three grounds on appeal, each of which would have individually...
Thursday, August 23, 2007

Third anniversary!

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To celebrate the third anniversary (next Saturday) of the start of this site, here is a draft paper on the exclusion of improperly obtained...
Thursday, July 26, 2007

Stare decisis: formalism, pragmatism and habeas corpus

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The problem of whether to depart from a recent decision of the same court was the subject of Gibson v USA (The Bahamas) [2007] UKPC 52 (23 ...