Saturday, May 30, 2009

Economy overwhelms the need for a fair trial

›
Here is another illustration of a divergence of opinion between appellate judges over whether to apply the proviso: R v Van [2009] SCC 22 (...
Friday, May 29, 2009

Is a buyer party to the sale?

›
Abuelhawa v United States [2009] USSC No 08-192, 26 May 2009 deals with whether a buyer of a drug is a party to its sale in a statutory con...
Thursday, May 28, 2009

Breach of prosecutor’s duties

›
Breach of the prosecutor's duties made the trial unfair in Stewart v R [2009] NZSC 53 (28 May 2009). That meant that the proviso could ...

Unstilted voluntariness

›
"When a defendant is not in custody, he is in control, and need only shut his door or walk away to avoid police badgering. And noninte...
Monday, May 25, 2009

Short in trumps

›
There are times when it's a struggle to say anything interesting about the final resolution of a disputed point of law. "How sour s...
Thursday, May 21, 2009

A night mission

›
Judicial decisions must be based on adequate grounds, and a decision to stay proceedings is no different. In R v Edwards [2009] HCA 20 (21 ...
Friday, May 15, 2009

Remedies for undue delay

›
The remedy for undue delay before trial was the subject of Williams v R [2009] NZSC 41. As would be expected, the Court applied dicta in At...
Tuesday, May 05, 2009

Knowledge of circumstances

›
Knowledge of circumstances was required as a matter of statutory interpretation in Flores-Figueroa v United States [2009] USSC No 08-108, 4...
Monday, May 04, 2009

Contradicting the snitch

›
If improperly obtained evidence is inadmissible in chief, is it necessarily inadmissible in cross-examination? In Kansas v Ventris [2009] U...
Sunday, May 03, 2009

Oops!

›
Firing a gun during the commission of a crime can increase the minimum sentence. What if the firing was accidental – does the minimum apply?...
Saturday, May 02, 2009

Criminal proceeds recovery and proof of offending

›
Even as we in New Zealand eagerly await 1 December 2009, when the new Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act 2009 will commence, a question about ...
Friday, May 01, 2009

Injustice, oppression, flight and extradition

›
Injustice and oppression as grounds for resisting extradition were considered in Gomes v Trinidad and Tobago [2009] UKHL 21 (29 April 2009)...
Thursday, April 30, 2009

“the kingdom would come to confusion”

›
The interpretation of legislation can, on rare occasions, be assisted by reference to information about the creation of that legislation. Ev...

Cut-throat issues

›
In Jones v R [2009] HCA 17 (29 April 2009) some interesting issues were mentioned, but they did not need to be decided. They concern the us...
Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Search incidental to arrest

›
An interesting aspect of Arizona v Gant [2009] USSC, No 07-542, (21 April 2009) is the omission of any reference to Herring v United States...
Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Reviewing or revising

›
There can be a fine line between evaluating facts and making up new ones. In Carroll v R [2009] HCA 13 (21 April 2009) the CCA NSW majority...
Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Private garbage?

›
Do the police act improperly if they search, without warrant, the contents of a rubbish bag left on a property by the fence line for uplifti...
Tuesday, April 07, 2009

Extended interrogations and voluntariness

›
Awful legislative drafting caused a 5 – 4 split in the United States Supreme Court in Corley v United States [2009] No 07-10441, 6 April 20...
Thursday, April 02, 2009

Jury selection

›
Just a glance at Rivera v Illinois [2009] USSC No 07-9995 (31 March 2009) will get you thinking about whether there should be peremptory ch...
Monday, March 30, 2009

Youth justice procedures in Canada

›
A Supreme Court of Canada case, abundant in citations of authors and cases, and with 12 counsel appearing, deals with aspects of youth justi...
Thursday, March 26, 2009

Duties, errors and complaints

›
For discussion of counsel's duties in relation to defences that have no real prospect of success, see Knowles v Mirzayance [2009] USSC ...
Monday, March 23, 2009

Just leave it to the Crown

›
The Supreme Court of New Zealand has decided the jury vetting case (see blogs for 14 April 2008 and 29 July 2008): Gordon-Smith v R [2009] ...
Friday, March 20, 2009

The nastiness of tapering

›
For a horror story of abuse of power see Takitota v. The Attorney General & Ors (Bahamas) [2009] UKPC 12 (18 March 2009). How do the co...
Thursday, March 19, 2009

Finality

›
Three Privy Council decisions: The inherent jurisdiction of final appellate courts Bain v R (New Zealand) [2008] UKPC 6 (16 March 2009) at ...
Thursday, March 12, 2009

The melancholy fact

›
The melancholy fact of the existence of dishonest lawyers has led to the need, on occasion, to intercept the private communications between ...
Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Pressures of work and difficult clients

›
Just a small note today on an illustration of how some sorts of delay can be attributable to the accused, not to the prosecution: Vermont v ...