Thursday, January 31, 2008

A lesser right

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When does a breach of a detainee’s right to be informed of the reasons for detention or arrest make the detention or arrest unlawful? In Saa...
Friday, January 18, 2008

Fixing bad law: bias in military tribunals

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Perceived bias can amount to a breach of a suspect’s rights at a stage of the proceedings prior to trial. This is illustrated in Boyle v Uni...
Wednesday, January 02, 2008

LCN DNA analysis

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The recent decision of the Northern Ireland Crown Court in R v Hoey [2007] NICC 49 (20 December 2007) mentions that New Zealand is one of t...
Friday, December 21, 2007

Cunctation

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Can the prosecution cure an unreasonable delay in the proceedings against an accused by speeding them up? Or, once the accused’s right to a ...
Thursday, December 20, 2007

"Never mind your alibi, put the balaclava on ..."

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Where errors at trial meant that it could not be said that guilt was proved beyond reasonable doubt, the conviction had to be quashed and th...
Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Firearm "use" in drug transactions

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Some gems from Watson v US No.06-571, 10 December 2007: “we do not normally speak or write the Government’s way.” per Souter J, deliverin...
Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Policy v Logic

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R v Daley [2007] SCC 53 (13 December 2007) calls to mind the different approaches that have been taken to the problems for criminal respons...
Monday, December 17, 2007

... the verdict of you all?

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It is easy to agree with one, then the other, of two opposing views of a case. In WGC v R [2007] HCA 58 (12 December 2007) the first two ju...
Friday, December 14, 2007

The lawfulness of police helpfulness

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Where do the police get their powers to be helpful? In Ngan v R [2007] NZSC 105 (13 December 2007) the appellant was injured when his car o...
Thursday, December 13, 2007

Guiding sentencing

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A couple of recent decisions of the United States Supreme Court call attention to the operation of sentencing guidelines. In New Zealand we ...
Tuesday, December 11, 2007

When is a verdict unreasonable?

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An appeal provision of the kind that I have recently referred to (see blogs for R v Jackson , 10 December 2007, and R v Grover , 23 November...
Monday, December 10, 2007

Well done, or half-baked?

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Unresolved differences between judges in a split decision can leave us wondering whether the case was really ready for judgment. In R v Jack...
Friday, December 07, 2007

Breach or miscarriage?

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When should an appeal court acknowledge that an error at trial must be remedied by the granting of a re-trial? To uphold a conviction that w...
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...