Wednesday, January 20, 2010

When fallacies don’t matter

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The United States Supreme Court has discussed the prosecutor's fallacy in McDaniel v Brown [2010] USSC No 08-559, 11 January 2010. Afte...
Monday, January 18, 2010

Overview (4) – Reasoning with uncertainty

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We can be sure about very little. " 'We reason rashly and at random ,' says Timaeus in Plato, ' because our judgements, lik...
Thursday, January 14, 2010

Overview (3) - Balancing

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Application of rules is the least interesting part of judicial decision making. Vastly more intellectually absorbing is the process of reach...
Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Overview (2) – Standards of proof

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[I have seen that this is an oft-visited posting. For revision and updates, see the Introduction in the pdf of this site, linked here .] T...
Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Overview (1) – Interpreting the proviso

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This introductory part continues with my overview of important topics that are often addressed by the appellate courts in criminal cases. Wh...
Monday, January 11, 2010

Introduction (4) – the quest for clarity

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How wonderful it would be if laws could be simple. The quest for simplicity struggles against the head wind of reality: life is complicated....
Friday, January 08, 2010

Introduction (3) – The law teachers

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Having described appellate judges as being happily regressed to studious habits, I should turn to consider the law teachers. Academic life h...
Thursday, January 07, 2010

Introduction (2) On judges

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It is not unusual for a lawyer whose case on appeal is rejected to think that the judges have twisted the facts to suit that result. Montaig...
Wednesday, January 06, 2010

Introduction (1) – the point of view

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"To find a congenial subject, and to express that subject as lucidly, as sincerely, as frankly as possible, appears to me to be the mos...
Sunday, January 03, 2010

And now for something completely different ...

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Posts to this site will continue. There will be a new approach. Instead of a commentary on new cases as they are decided, I will post occasi...
Monday, August 24, 2009

Now we are five

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Five years of blogging! That concludes my ongoing commentary, but I may occasionally add updates to particular entries. To locate these, sea...
Monday, August 10, 2009

Disclosure of warnings and diversions

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It may be necessary for the prosecution to disclose to the defence information about prosecution witnesses concerning warnings that they hav...
Saturday, August 01, 2009

On being informed about decisions to prosecute

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There is a right to be told of how decisions about whether or not to prosecute are made: R (Purdy) v Director of Public Prosecutions [2009]...
Friday, July 31, 2009

Disclosure, fair trial, truth and justice

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No progress in development of the idea of the accused's right to a fair trial was made in R v Bjelland [2009] SCC 38 (30 July 2009).   ...

Choice

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Capacity to make a choice requires understanding, weighing of information, and choosing: "the case law on capacity has for some time re...
Friday, July 24, 2009

The two cultures

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Answers to jury questions must be responsive and must not deter further questions: R v Layton [2009] SCC 36 (23 July 2009). If the jury has...
Monday, July 20, 2009

Aiming les brickbats at le top

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A full eleven days after the decision in Matenga v R [2009] NZSC 18 (13 March 2009, mentioned in note of 9 July 2009) came to my attention,...
Sunday, July 19, 2009

Decision tree or impenetrable thicket?

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A difficulty with the balancing exercise described in R v Grant (noted here 18 July 2009) is that there is no indication of when an offence...
Saturday, July 18, 2009

Detention: will R v Grant work?

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Having just stated a test for detention ( R v Grant , last note today's date), the Supreme Court of Canada has disagreed on its applicat...

A new look at s 24(2) Canadian Charter

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Some people can engage in three-dimensional balancing without mentioning the electrodynamics of moving bodies . They are the Supreme Court o...